The US Postal Service didn't postmark 29 election ballots--so they might not be counted

When the Winneshiek County Board meets at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, they will be asked to determine whether all 42 ballots received by the Winneshiek County Auditor's Office should be included in the vote count.

13 of those ballots--7 for Democrat Kayla Koether and 6 for Republican Michael Bergan--were included in vote totals released on Friday.  The other 29 ballots were not included.  That's because the envelopes used to mail in the ballots were not postmarked by the US Postal Service's Waterloo sorting facility.

Election laws for Iowa say absentee ballots must carry a postmark of the day before Election Day in order to be included in the vote total.  Since the 29 ballots had no postmarks, they didn't meet this standard.

On the other hand, the voters who mailed in the ballots did nothing wrong--their ballots won't be counted because of the actions of US Postal Service employees, not because of their own actions.  Put yourself in the place of one of those 29 voters.  You do everything that is required of you--you make sure your ballot is correctly marked, signed, sealed and delivered in time.  You take it to the Post Office and put it in the mail.  Do you have to follow your ballot to the Waterloo Post Office to see that a post mark has been affixed? 

Is that fair?  That's the question county supervisors will be asked at noon Tuesday.  By failing to postmark the ballot envelopes, the Postal Service employees have taken away the right to vote of 29 people.  On the one hand, the rules are explicit--all envelopes must be postmarked the day before Election Day.  On the other hand, 29 Winneshiek County residents did everything they could to comply with that rule.

Stay tuned!