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Your election return questions answered!

Posted: Wed, Nov 14, 2018 2:25 PM

It's been another eventful week in Winneshiek County!  The counting of ballots cast for Iowa House District 55 has led to a number of reader questions:

"Has anyone checked the red ID tag code on the back side of the envelopes?  It contains Date, Time, Machine number of facility where the letter was processed."

You're describing the Intelligent Mail Barcode that gets put on mail.  This ID tag is useful--but it's not allowed by the Iowa Legislature as proof of when a letter (in this case, a ballot) has been mailed.

"What about the Informed Delivery system the Post Office uses?"

This is a system which informs a mail recipient which mail they are getting.  Mail is scanned and the images are sent to the recipient by e-mail.  The Informed Delivery system is a FREE service of USPS.  Unfortunately, smaller counties like Winneshiek, Clayton and Fayette haven't had the staff time in order to set up such a system.

"How is it possible the Waterloo mail sorting facility hadn't put a postmark on 32 of the 45 ballots which arrived after Election Day?"

There are several possible explanations.  One is that mail used to be handled locally by post offices, but staffing reductions have led to all mail going to regional sorting facilities where much of the work is done by machines.  Another explanation is that one of the people working in Waterloo made a mistake, such as assuming the letters had already been postmarked.

"Absentee ballots from Winneshiek County received after election day, without a postmark, WERE NOT included in the final vote tally (thus complying with Iowa law), while simultaneously absentee ballots received after election day without a postmark WERE included in the final voting tally for Fayette county (thus NOT complying with Iowa law). Fayette County is demonstrably more Republican than Winneshiek County and their Republican County Auditor chose to not follow the law (thus breaking the law), in a decision that supported her party's candidate."

The Iowa Deputy Secretary of State in charge of elections says the Fayette County Auditor temporarily left the room during the vote recount--and when she returned, the uncancelled ballots had already been counted and sent to Des Moines