Koether files suit in Des Moines to have ballots counted

Posted: Fri, Nov 30, 2018 8:09 AM

Iowa House District 55 Democratic candidate Kayla Koether has filed a lawsuit in Des Moines to request 33 voters from Winneshiek County who legally cast absentee ballots in the 2018 General Election have their vote counted.

At issue are 33 absentee ballots that arrived at the Winneshiek County Auditor's Office after Election Day, including 29 that came in the day after the election. Koether trails Republican Michael Bergan by just nine votes out of nearly 14,000 votes cast.

The emergency petition filed in Polk County District Court late Thursday requests the Winneshiek County Auditor and Iowa Secretary of State use the USPS barcode information on the ballots to determine when the ballots were placed in the mail and to count those votes that were legally cast.

A court hearing on the issue will be held in Des Moines at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

"Every legal vote should be counted. We believe that these 33 ballots were mailed on time in accordance with the law, and every effort must be made to count these additional votes. Our citizens voted in good faith, and their ballots should be counted in good faith," said Koether.

Copy of the petition filed in Des Moines