Recounts held following primary election

Issues with voting machines during the June 7 primary election led to recounts in O'Brien and Clay counties.

According to O'Brien County Auditor Barb Rohwer, issues arose when one of the precincts noticed their count was incorrect – the number of eligible voters who were voting was off compared to the count on the tabulating machine. Once it was all said and done, four precincts – the three Sheldon wards and the Summit-Center-Dale-Highland precinct – were each off by one vote.

"There were some voters who had issues where the tabulating machine wasn't taking their ballot and it jammed," Rohwer explained. "In the four instances, the machine counted the ballot twice."

An administrative recount was held on June 9 and conducted by the absentee precinct board. Members ran the ballots from Election Day in each of the nine precincts and once the tabulation concluded, the correct number of ballots matched the total number of voters who came to the polls on Election Day.

"It is believed that the software has a glitch in it that when a ballot 'jams' the tabulator should have given the voter a message to ask for a precinct worker's assistance," said Rohwer. "In these cases, it didn't do this. It simply accepted the ballot."

A similar situation unfolded in Clay County affecting all five precincts in Spencer. Each of the five reported that the number of ballots cast was different by one of the signed declarations of eligibility slips. A recount was held on June 10 to rectify the error.

Though the number of affected ballots was small, Clay County Auditor Ann Baschke said it was her office's duty to get the count exactly right.

"We are committed to making sure that every eligible voter has the opportunity to vote and that their vote will count," she wrote in her letter to the board of supervisors requesting the recount.

• Turnout

The Iowa Secretary of State's Office announced more than 356,000 Iowans participated in the June 7 primary election, according to unofficial numbers released by Pate's office. More than 73,000 Iowans voted absentee, which is the second-highest total for a primary election in state history. Overall turnout was the second highest in a primary election since 1994.

The unofficial turnout by political party was 195,355 Republicans and 156,589 Democrats.

Turnout in O'Brien County was 1,847 (19 percent), while turnout in Clay County was 2,180 (18.4 percent).