An Iowa legislator discusses her standpoint about the recent changes with a bill relating to the recount election process.

House File 928 would make the rules stricter for election candidates requesting a recount and would hand the control over to the county auditors. Iowa District 14 Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott indicates that during her three elections running for public office, she’s had a recount every time. She describes that the current system allows a campaign party member for each candidate to appoint an individual to represent them in the recount process, and then another independent person is also on the committee. 

Trone-Garriott believes the way the recount process is now is done in a fair way. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that she’s fine with auditors being involved in the election process, but acknowledges potential issues it can cause.

“County auditors are partisans. They’re elected, their staff work for them, and while there are some provisions to have different political identities represented, just because somebody is of the same political party doesn’t mean they have the candidates’ best interest at heart. And so I think for trust, the system we had was good because you trusted your person and they had to work together.”

Proponents of the bill say it will prevent the abuse of the flaws that are in the current system. The bill is now at Governor Kim Reynolds’ desk for consideration.