Reflections on the 2024 General Election

I was asked to reflect on the 2024 General Election. Obviously, we have heard a lot in the media nationally, statewide, and locally. There have been incidents throughout the nation, but here are my thoughts as I look back and have caught up on my sleep a bit.

There was a lot of discussion on Election Security from safeguarding of equipment to mail, to ballot boxes, to ballots, etc. These are really things that we think of every Election but there were more in-depth discussions. There were incidents of mail even in Iowa. There were also fires reported in ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington state. I was happy that we decided to put the ballot box in our Election Center. I did this for cost, less than $100, and I did not want anyone to drive away with the ballot box, if we chose the external ballot box option.

One of the first big tasks is preparing the ballots for each different split. While that may not mean much to many of you, for Jessie Chizek, my Election Deputy, who really understands when we receive information on an additional Bond Referendum or the LOSST Question for the Unincorporated parts for Marshall County, this is a big task. Marshall County ended up having the highest number of Bond Referendums in the state. This really is not something we wanted to win because we ended up with 51 different ballot styles and adds a lot of complexity in setting up the ballots. Of course, Jessie rose to the challenge and worked with our vendor preparing the ballots, then testing the ballots on all the machines. There was a great article on October 5th in the Times Republican County Auditor/Recorder’s office preparing for Nov. 5 election | News, Sports, Jobs – Times Republican explaining the testing process, which verifies that the ballots will be correctly counted by our Freedom Vote Scanners. We did not have any public attend; however, we do report and as a department feel like we are ready when this task is complete.

On October 16 we mailed out 1,700 Absentee Ballots and had nearly 400 In-Person voters at the Election Center (Old First Station) that first day, our team was busy! We hire temporary workers for the front line as well as a couple of extra workers in the back office which work just as many hours as Jessie and me. These back-office workers started in early September and continued through last week. Throughout our Absentee Voting period, we had 8,323 ballots which we counted which included 2 Safe at Home. Safe at Home are individuals who register with the Iowa Secretary of State, then the ballot is sent through them. This is utilized for folks needing to keep their identification secret for safety reasons.

We have had many discussions on Absentee Voting versus Early Voting, in Iowa we are an Absentee Voting state because we do not count your vote until Election Day, or some of the large counties do begin counting the Absentee Ballots the day before. The Early Voting states begin tallying the votes when the vote is cast.

There were 22 additional Absentee Ballots which were not counted by the Special Precinct Board on November 4th or 5th for the following reasons:

• nine were not signed

• one was not sealed

• one was signed by the POA

• one was voted by the son instead of the voter at a Health Care Facility

• one arrived after 8:00 p.m. on Election Day

• four died prior to Election Day

• five rejected due to Challenged Absentee Voters that did not bring in proper documentation, one of the five brought the documentation in too late

For the Absentee Ballots not signed and sealed we do contact the voter by phone, email and/or letter and many get the issue taken care of.

On November 5, we had 9,080 voters on Election Day at our 11 Polling Locations. It was a busy day for all these locations, and we had many of our experienced Precinct Election Officials (PEOs) who were working alongside brand new PEOs. I heard so many positive comments about their experiences. We do have training options, both online and in-person.

The Challenged Voter list from the Iowa Secretary of State Office which we received October 22nd was a difficult situation, however, our voters that had to deal with the situation were very accommodating and many brought in their U.S. Naturalization Certificate or U.S. Passport just in case so they could just vote a regular ballot. I am hopeful we do not have this issue again, especially as late as we did for this election.

Also, please note that the General Election was official after the second canvass on November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Everyone thinks that after Election Day we are done working, I truly think the after-Election Day work is harder, because there are so many different tasks. We are still working on balancing the voter credit which is supposed to be completed by December 1st. The Secretary of State does not think about all the other tasks we have put off so we will finish this up next week, we have just two more to find, not bad for 9,080. There are 20 counties which are currently dealing with a Recount, so I am counting Marshall County lucky.

When you hear that it takes a village, this is never truer than when you talk about an election, especially a General Election. When I reflect, I need to “thank” so many:

• Jessica Chizek, Election Deputy – she just does it all but never loses her cool!

• Auditor/Recorder’s Office Staff – just everything, covering other duties, answering phones, explaining the difference between Absentee Voting versus Early Voting many times, etc.

• Building & Ground Staff – Deliver/Pick Up Election Equipment, Open/Close Laptops, etc.

• Sheriff’s Office Deputies – Providing additional security & Results pick up

• Staff in Engineer’s Office & Attorney’s Office – Results pick up

• Absentee Voting Workers since middle of October, also is the Write-In Board November 6th

• Health Care Workers since October 22nd

• Back Office Election Workers since early September

• Two students from Grinnell College which worked 10 hours per week since early October

• Precinct Election Officials – Election Day – Chair & Workers at 11 Polling Locations

• Special Precinct Board – November 4th & 5th then 7th, 8th and 12th

• Patrons of Marshall County – there were some long lines, we ran out of stickers at some locations, but you were all so patient and very kind to our workers.

Thank you, Marshall County, for being Iowa nice and having the good old Iowa common sense.

——

Nan Benson, a Republican from State Center,

is the Marshall County Auditor/Recorder.