Woodbury County Election Results Still Up in the Air

KPTH Fox 44 News

Woodbury County election results are still up in the air. Officials continued to count absentee ballots Thursday evening with more than 650 to go. Plus ballots post-marked before election day are still coming in by mail, and there are at least 227 provisional ballots that must be reviewed.

These votes truly do matter, especially in the tight Iowa State Representative District 1 race between incumbent Democrat Wes Whitead and Republican challenger Jeremy Taylor….

Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill (D) said he hopes to finish counting the remaining ballots by Thursday evening or at the latest Friday morning.

If the State Representative District 1 race remains close, Gill said a full recount is likely.

During this entire counting process, officials found 122 voters in Woodbury County received the wrong ballot.  So for instance, a voter in District 2 may have received a ballot for District 1.  Gill said according to law, those votes will not be counted in any races they're not eligible to vote in.  He said the problem was noticed because of a change in law that requires the county to report returns by precinct.

“It's human error,” said Gill. “When they're pulling them [the ballots] out of those styles [which contain 28 different ballots], they put the wrong one in. It happens across the state, but this is the first time it was identified because of the change in the law.”

Provisional ballots will be reviewed Monday morning and none of the results are official until the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors certifies the complete returns on Wednesday.

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