Iowa Statutes § 50.48 General recount provisions

a. The county board of canvassers shall order a recount of the votes cast for a particular office or nomination in one or more specified election precincts in that county if a written request for a recount is made not later than 5:00 p.m. on the third day following the county board's canvass of the election in question. For a city runoff election held pursuant to section 376.9 , the written request must be made not later than 5:00 p.m. on the day following the county board's canvass of the city runoff election. The request shall be filed with the commissioner of that county and shall be signed by either of the following:

b. Immediately upon receipt of a request for a recount, the commissioner shall send a copy of the request to the apparent winner by certified mail. The commissioner shall also attempt to contact the apparent winner by telephone. If the apparent winner cannot be reached within four days, the chairperson of the political party or organization which nominated the apparent winner shall be contacted and shall act on behalf of the apparent winner, if necessary. For candidates for state or federal offices, the chairperson of the state party shall be contacted. For candidates for county offices, the county chairperson of the party shall be contacted.

a. The candidate requesting a recount under this section shall post a bond, unless the abstracts prepared pursuant to section 50.24 , or section 43.49 in the case of a primary election, indicate that the difference between the total number of votes cast for the apparent winner and the total number of votes cast for the candidate requesting the recount is less than the greater of fifty votes or one percent of the total number of votes cast for the office or nomination in question. If a recount is requested for an office to which more than one person was elected, the vote difference calculations shall be made using the difference between the number of votes received by the person requesting the recount and the number of votes received by the apparent winner who received the fewest votes. Where votes cast for that office or nomination were canvassed in more than one county, the abstracts prepared by the county boards in all of those counties shall be totaled for purposes of this subsection. If a bond is required, it shall be filed with the state commissioner for recounts involving a state office, including a seat in the general assembly, or a seat in the United States Congress, and with the commissioner responsible for conducting the election in all other cases, and shall be in the following amount:

b. After all recount proceedings for a particular office are completed and the official canvass of votes cast for that office is corrected or completed pursuant to subsections 5 and 6, if necessary, any bond posted under this subsection shall be returned to the candidate who requested the recount if the apparent winner before the recount is not the winner as shown by the corrected or completed canvass. In all other cases, the bond shall be deposited in the general fund of the state if filed with the state commissioner or in the election fund of the county with whose commissioner it was filed.

a. The recount shall be conducted by a board which shall consist of:

b. The commissioner shall convene the persons designated under paragraph "a" , subparagraphs (1) and (2), not later than 9:00 a.m. on the seventh day following the county board's canvass of the election in question. If those two members cannot agree on the third member by 8:00 a.m. on the ninth day following the canvass, they shall immediately so notify the chief judge of the judicial district in which the canvass is occurring, who shall appoint the third member not later than 5:00 p.m. on the eleventh day following the canvass.

a. When all members of the recount board have been selected, the board shall undertake and complete the required recount as expeditiously as reasonably possible. The commissioner or the commissioner's designee shall supervise the handling of ballots to ensure that the ballots are protected from alteration or damage. The board shall open only the sealed ballot containers from the precincts specified to be recounted in the request or by the recount board. The board shall recount only the ballots which were voted and counted for the office in question, including any disputed ballots returned as required in section 50.5 . If automatic tabulating equipment was used to count the ballots, the recount board may request the commissioner to retabulate the ballots using the automatic tabulating equipment. The same program used for tabulating the votes on election day shall be used at the recount unless the program is believed or known to be flawed.

b. Any member of the recount board may at any time during the recount proceedings extend the recount of votes cast for the office or nomination in question to any other precinct or precincts in the same county, or from which the returns were reported to the commissioner responsible for conducting the election, without the necessity of posting additional bond.

c. The ballots shall be resealed by the recount board before adjournment and shall be preserved as required by section 50.12 . At the conclusion of the recount, the recount board shall make and file with the commissioner a written report of its findings, which shall be signed by at least two members of the recount board. The recount board shall complete the recount and file its report not later than the eighteenth day following the county board's canvass of the election in question.

a.

b. If the recount board's report is that the abstracts prepared pursuant to the county board's canvass were incorrect as to the number of votes cast for the candidates for the office or nomination in question, in that county or district, the commissioner shall at once so notify the county board. The county board shall reconvene within three days after being so notified, but no later than noon on the twenty-seventh day following the election in question for a recount of the offices of president and vice president, and shall correct its previous proceedings.