The margin of victory narrowed, but didn’t change for one race in Greene County, following a special committee that reviewed a set of ballots following last Tuesday’s general election.

Deputy County Auditor Billie Hoskins presented the Absentee Voter Special Precinct Committee one absentee ballot and four provisional ballots to review. Before the committee made their decision, Hoskins went over her reasoning for each ballot for them to consider. All absentee ballots had to be postmarked by November 5th to be eligible and the ballot was postmarked for November 6th.

Hoskins then went over the four provisional ballots. One was for a voter that had to show proof of residency since the individual had moved from Grand Junction to Jefferson. That person had until last Friday to show proof at the County Auditor’s office and did not do so. Another ballot was filled out by a convicted felon, which had been flagged as a possibility on Election Day, but the individual was allowed to vote a provisional ballot. The Iowa Secretary of State’s office then confirmed that person’s previous felony conviction in 2016. The third provisional ballot was for an individual that voted at the wrong precinct and refused to go to the correct polling place. The final ballot was for a voter that had an absentee ballot sent to them, but voted at the polls on Election Day, and didn’t open their absentee ballot, so they wanted to surrender the absentee and have their provisional ballot count instead.

Ultimately, the committee decided to allow one provisional ballot to count and denied the others. With only one additional ballot counted, it didn’t change any of the outcomes of any of the contested races in Greene County. However, it brought the margin of victory for the County Treasurer’s race from three votes to two for Republican challenger Katlynn Gannon-Mechaelsen over Democrat incumbent Donna Lawson. The Greene County Supervisors made the tally official at their canvass of votes on Tuesday, making the final count 2,026 for Mechaelsen to 2,024 for Lawson.

Following the canvass of votes by the Board of Supervisors, Lawson requested a recount. The Supervisors are expected to pass a resolution for the recount to be done prior to the state’s canvass of votes on November 26th.

The Absentee Voter Special Precinct Committee was made up of three individuals including: Republican representative with Jenny Wessling, Democrat representative with Mary Jane Fields and No Party representative with Adam Pedersen.