BREAKING: Washington County reports election night miscounts

WASHINGTON — County officials say unofficial results reported on election night failed to include absentee ballots. The issue was corrected before results were finalized by the county supervisors Tuesday morning, and did not change the outcome of any races.

“While all absentee ballots were counted and tabulated by the Absentee Board on Election Day, information from the flash drive used to count the absentee ballots was not included in the results that were downloaded and forwarded to the Office of the Secretary of State,” the county auditor’s office said in a statement. “This resulted in absentee ballot results not being included in the unofficial Election Summary Results provided to the public.”

County Auditor Dan Widmer said the newly counted votes didn’t change any race outcomes, including the District 3 Supervisor race, which has gone from a razor thin five-vote margin to a slightly wider difference of 20 ballots.

Widmer said the error was caught in time, before results were finalized Tuesday morning.

“We regret that this happened but we learned a valuable lesson, and it’s nice to know that the checks and balances did indeed work,” he said at a meeting Tuesday morning. “What you will be canvassing here this morning will be what we consider to be the actual results, and it includes absentee ballots that were cast.”

The county has not yet declared a cause for the mistake, but the statement said staff were looking into it.

“We have proactively begun a review of what took place so that steps may be taken to prevent a similar occurrence in the future,” the statement read. “My office serves to conduct elections that are fair, legal, and impartial and we will continue to do so in the future.”

Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Young said the issue was unrelated to paper-jam issues that several other counties experienced using the same in-person voting equipment as Washington County on Election Day.

“Some counties had jamming issues, we did not have that issue here in Washington County,” he said. “I just want to have it on the record that we did not have an issue with machines jamming.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com