Three Johnson County cities – North Liberty, Oxford, and Solon – will have special elections for city offices on the November 4 general election ballot.
Iowa law says that city council appointments last until the next scheduled city election. Because the local option sales tax will appear on the general election ballot, the general election is now considered the next scheduled city election. The Johnson County Attorney and the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office concur in this opinion.
Recent changes in state law will, in the future, postpone similar elections to the next regularly scheduled city election, in November of odd years. However, all of the Johnson County vacancies occurred before the new law took effect on July 1.
The recent vacancy on the Iowa City School Board will not appear on the November 4 ballot. The general election is not considered a school election, and under state law school elections may not be combined with any other elections.
The recent vacancy on the University Heights city council will not appear on the ballot because of the city’s provision for primary elections.
The following offices will appear on the November 4 ballot:
North Liberty
Mayor (3 year term)
Council (3 year term)
Vacancies due to death of mayor Tom Salm and resignation of council member Gerry Kuhl (appointed as mayor).
Oxford
Council (1 year term)
Vacancy due to resignation of council member Gary Wilkinson (elected as mayor in 2013 with two years remaining on council term).
Solon
Mayor (1 year term)
Council (3 year term)
Vacancies due to resignations of mayor Cami Rasmussen and council member Steve Stange (appointed as mayor).
The filing deadline for all cities is August 27. North Liberty offices require 25 signatures. Oxford and Solon require 10 signatures. City candidates will file with the city clerk (not with the auditor's office).
Johnson County, Iowa Election Office
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Mock Election: First Results
As 11:00am Tuesday, 389 people had voted in the Johnson County Auditor’s Mock Election with the following results:
US Senator
Bruce Braley (Democrat) 190
Joni Ernst (Republican) 148
Doug Butzier (Libertarian) 30
Governor
Jack Hatch (Democrat) 171
Terry Branstad (Republican) 178
Lee Hieb (Libertarian) 23
Public Measure: Name for carbonated beverage
Soda 116
Coke 25
Pop 215
Tonic 18
The mock election, a fair feature since 1999, lets voters and future voters see and try our real voting equipment. Our poll workers will also be registering voters.
Mock election hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Thursday, July 24 at the Johnson County exhibit in Building B at the Fairgrounds.
US Senator
Bruce Braley (Democrat) 190
Joni Ernst (Republican) 148
Doug Butzier (Libertarian) 30
Governor
Jack Hatch (Democrat) 171
Terry Branstad (Republican) 178
Lee Hieb (Libertarian) 23
Public Measure: Name for carbonated beverage
Soda 116
Coke 25
Pop 215
Tonic 18
The mock election, a fair feature since 1999, lets voters and future voters see and try our real voting equipment. Our poll workers will also be registering voters.
Mock election hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Thursday, July 24 at the Johnson County exhibit in Building B at the Fairgrounds.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Mock Election at County Fair
The Johnson County Auditor's mock election ballot at the Johnson County Fair will have a mix of fun and politics this year.
In addition to the hot contests for Governor and U.S. Senator, fair voters will get to choose something cold: the name of their
favorite carbonated beverage. Since we’re letting kids vote, we’re limited the
choices to non-adult beverages: pop, Coke, soda or tonic.
We don't usually predict results ahead of time, but we've seen polling on the pop-soda-coke issue. We also don't usually release results while the election is still going on, but during the fair we'll report preliminary numbers a few times.
The mock election, a fair feature since 1999, lets voters
and future voters see and try our real voting equipment. Our poll workers will
also be registering voters.
Mock election hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, July 21-24. We’ll be part of the Johnson County exhibit in Building B at the Fairgrounds. Look for the voting booths, or look for Auditor Travis Weipert in his famous Uncle Sam hat.
Mock election hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, July 21-24. We’ll be part of the Johnson County exhibit in Building B at the Fairgrounds. Look for the voting booths, or look for Auditor Travis Weipert in his famous Uncle Sam hat.
Friday, June 27, 2014
People Are Asking: School Board Vacancy
As you may know, the Iowa City Community School District has a new vacancy on the school board.
The intent of state law is for the school board to appoint a new member to serve until the next school election, which in this case is September 8, 2015. This is what happened in the summer of 2011 when board member Michael Cooper resigned. Jan Leff was appointed to a very short term, and the vacancy was filled in the September 2011 election. Similar vacancies have happened in the county’s other districts in recent years.
There is no option for the public to petition for a special election, as there is with vacancies in city or county office. There is also no direct option for the school board to vote in favor of holding a special election.
The only way a special election would occur would be if the school board fails to make an appointment within 30 days of Hoelscher’s resignation (by July 24), either through inability to reach consensus or through inaction. If a special election would be required, the likely date would be Tuesday, August 26. The cost of the election would be paid by the school district.
The ICCSD school board has scheduled a special meeting for 8:30 AM Tuesday, July 1 to discuss the vacancy. Questions about applying for the vacancy should be directed to the school district.
The intent of state law is for the school board to appoint a new member to serve until the next school election, which in this case is September 8, 2015. This is what happened in the summer of 2011 when board member Michael Cooper resigned. Jan Leff was appointed to a very short term, and the vacancy was filled in the September 2011 election. Similar vacancies have happened in the county’s other districts in recent years.
There is no option for the public to petition for a special election, as there is with vacancies in city or county office. There is also no direct option for the school board to vote in favor of holding a special election.
The only way a special election would occur would be if the school board fails to make an appointment within 30 days of Hoelscher’s resignation (by July 24), either through inability to reach consensus or through inaction. If a special election would be required, the likely date would be Tuesday, August 26. The cost of the election would be paid by the school district.
The ICCSD school board has scheduled a special meeting for 8:30 AM Tuesday, July 1 to discuss the vacancy. Questions about applying for the vacancy should be directed to the school district.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
High School Senior Works Election Day
With the June 3 primary over, our office would like to thank all our poll workers and staff for all the long hours and hard work through the election. We’re giving one of our poll workers an extra thank you.
When most people picture poll workers, they think of “little old ladies.” And it’s true most of our workers are retirees. But our crew is becoming more diverse and on Tuesday we had our first ever high school student work an Election Day. Karalee Smith, a 18 year old Clear Creek Amana senior, put in a 16 hour day at Oxford City Hall.
We hope to add more high school students to our pool of experienced workers for this fall’s general election. Applications are available here. For more information, please contact our office at elections(at)co.johnson.ia.us or 319-356-6004.
When most people picture poll workers, they think of “little old ladies.” And it’s true most of our workers are retirees. But our crew is becoming more diverse and on Tuesday we had our first ever high school student work an Election Day. Karalee Smith, a 18 year old Clear Creek Amana senior, put in a 16 hour day at Oxford City Hall.
We hope to add more high school students to our pool of experienced workers for this fall’s general election. Applications are available here. For more information, please contact our office at elections(at)co.johnson.ia.us or 319-356-6004.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Good morning!
We're a little sleepy but we're open for business. Our last precinct
reported at 9:53 PM. Thanks for all the compliments.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks also to all the candidates who didn't make it. It takes a lot to put your name in front of the people and a campaign is a big personal sacrifice.
Special thanks to all the poll workers and my staff, who were working till almost midnight bringing back supplies and double-checking numbers. We had a couple small corrections on write-ins and uncontested races, but no changes in candidate totals in contested races.
Our provisional ballot board meets Thursday at 1 PM. We don't have a count yet on how many ballots there will be. We had 3 as of 6 PM yesterday and we know there were more before 9. There's not enough to change any races, but we count every ballot we can.
We could still get some mail but the odds shrink each day. They needed to be postmarked Monday or earlier. Two ballots were in today's mail, but both were postmarked yesterday and can't be counted.
All the results are unofficial until the canvass, where the Board of Supervisors officially certifies the results, on Tuesday, June 10. After that we start getting ready for November 4! We also have a bond election in the Solon School District on September 9.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks also to all the candidates who didn't make it. It takes a lot to put your name in front of the people and a campaign is a big personal sacrifice.
Special thanks to all the poll workers and my staff, who were working till almost midnight bringing back supplies and double-checking numbers. We had a couple small corrections on write-ins and uncontested races, but no changes in candidate totals in contested races.
Our provisional ballot board meets Thursday at 1 PM. We don't have a count yet on how many ballots there will be. We had 3 as of 6 PM yesterday and we know there were more before 9. There's not enough to change any races, but we count every ballot we can.
We could still get some mail but the odds shrink each day. They needed to be postmarked Monday or earlier. Two ballots were in today's mail, but both were postmarked yesterday and can't be counted.
All the results are unofficial until the canvass, where the Board of Supervisors officially certifies the results, on Tuesday, June 10. After that we start getting ready for November 4! We also have a bond election in the Solon School District on September 9.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Election Day Liveblog
There's a lot going on so let's just put it all in one place.
10:58 PM: Polls closed almost 2 hours, but staff & pollworkers still working on supply check in. Thanks to everyone for the long day!
10:35 PM: Some minor corrections, none affecting candidate totals. One more total voter, some write-ins.
9:53 PM: Our last precinct reported! Stay tuned. A lot of precincts phoned results in and corrections still possible.
8:53 PM: We use http://time.gov/ for our official closing time
8:40 PM: Our returns crew is gathering in our ballot room, won't be long now! Most of the action from here on out will be on Twitter and the results page of the Official site.
7:46 PM: Looks like the worst of the severe weather will miss us (whew).
7:12 PM: Reports of polls closed in western Iowa due to weather emergencies. Reminder: state law won't let us extend hours if we have to close for severe weather. This from the Woodbury County Auditor:
4:17 PM: Thanks to the City Channel 4 crew for broadcasting election returns! The cable guys are here testing now to be ready for 9:00. Clarification: the returns themselves will be on channel 5. City council called dibs on Channel 4.
3:32 PM: Our 3:00 voter total is 3543 for turnout of 4.1% http://www.johnson-county.com/auditor/returns/1406turnout.htm 2187 Democrats, 1358 Republicans. Next turnout update at 6.
2:50 PM. Planning ahead in case power goes out. Our normal plan is to post returns on our regular web site jcauditor.com. If that site is down, please check this blog, our Twitter feed @jcauditor or our Facebook page. Returns for federal, state and legislative races will be available at the Secretary of State's web site http://www.electionresults.sos.iowa.gov/ (not live till later tonight).
2:00 PM: Oops! Fixed a typo on 11 AM turnout. New total is 1777. While we're waiting for the 3:00 update, we're making plans for bad weather. Vote now before you have to worry about it!
12:11 PM: Our 11 AM check in is done. We've seen 1758 for 1.2% turnout. We have a complete party breakdown this time:1062 Democrats and 695 Republicans. Turnout is ahead of 2010 but behind 2006.
11:42 AM: Thanks to my staff for the long, hard work through election season and today. We have a potluck tradition on Election Day, and this year we're kicking it up a notch with a grillout. Here's our grillmaster Mark Kistler (his day job is as our real estate deputy).
10:09 AM. Our computer problems are resolved. The problem was getting the second voter lookup computer at each site to connect to the main master computer at the site. We always had at least one up and running, and the issues were only with voter lookup and not with the ballot readers. Sorry for any delays.
9:52 AM: 17 ballots arrived in today's mail. That leaves 76 out. DON'T mail them today! You need to BRING them in to our office. You can also turn them in unvoted at the poll. If you lost your absentee ballot, you can vote a provisional ballot.
Also, our final 9 AM count was 836 voters (0.96%). 489 Democrats, 263 Republicans. Numbers don't add up because three precincts didn't get us a party breakdown; it's the first primary where we've done that.
9:40 AM: With one precinct left to report 828 voters (0.95%). Compares to 1007 (1.3%) in 2006, and 720 (0.8%) in 2010. Next update 11 AM.
9:01 AM: Our first turnout update is underway! Watch this space. If you want to compare to past elections, look at 2006 and 2010 for the big picture. But remember: the precinct lines have changed since those elections.
8:20 AM: The National Weather Service has forecast the possibility of severe weather in Johnson County this afternoon.
In the event of severe weather such as tornado warnings, precinct officials are authorized to close polling places and seek shelter until the severe weather has passed. State law does not allow polling hours to be extended to make up for such closures. The urgent nature of weather warnings means our office will not be able to announce closings in advance.
For precedent, see this report on a similar event in the 2006 primary election.
8:07 AM: Precinct officials are experiencing computer problems at a number of Johnson County precincts. Our office is aware of the issues and working to resolve them. We thank the voters for their patience
10:58 PM: Polls closed almost 2 hours, but staff & pollworkers still working on supply check in. Thanks to everyone for the long day!
10:35 PM: Some minor corrections, none affecting candidate totals. One more total voter, some write-ins.
9:53 PM: Our last precinct reported! Stay tuned. A lot of precincts phoned results in and corrections still possible.
8:53 PM: We use http://time.gov/ for our official closing time
8:40 PM: Our returns crew is gathering in our ballot room, won't be long now! Most of the action from here on out will be on Twitter and the results page of the Official site.
7:46 PM: Looks like the worst of the severe weather will miss us (whew).
7:12 PM: Reports of polls closed in western Iowa due to weather emergencies. Reminder: state law won't let us extend hours if we have to close for severe weather. This from the Woodbury County Auditor:
Sgt. Bluff poll workers were allowed to pull their vehicles in the polling place before the weather hit. pic.twitter.com/oqA3iq5Nhi
— Pat Gill (@WCAudRec) June 3, 2014
6:53 PM: We've been busy but not too busy for 6 PM turnout update: 5828 voters, 6.7% turnout. We're sending extra ballots, mainly Republican, to several precincts. We may be the People's Republic but we're also one of the top 10 Republican counties in the state.4:17 PM: Thanks to the City Channel 4 crew for broadcasting election returns! The cable guys are here testing now to be ready for 9:00. Clarification: the returns themselves will be on channel 5. City council called dibs on Channel 4.
3:32 PM: Our 3:00 voter total is 3543 for turnout of 4.1% http://www.johnson-county.com/auditor/returns/1406turnout.htm 2187 Democrats, 1358 Republicans. Next turnout update at 6.
2:50 PM. Planning ahead in case power goes out. Our normal plan is to post returns on our regular web site jcauditor.com. If that site is down, please check this blog, our Twitter feed @jcauditor or our Facebook page. Returns for federal, state and legislative races will be available at the Secretary of State's web site http://www.electionresults.sos.iowa.gov/ (not live till later tonight).
2:00 PM: Oops! Fixed a typo on 11 AM turnout. New total is 1777. While we're waiting for the 3:00 update, we're making plans for bad weather. Vote now before you have to worry about it!
12:11 PM: Our 11 AM check in is done. We've seen 1758 for 1.2% turnout. We have a complete party breakdown this time:1062 Democrats and 695 Republicans. Turnout is ahead of 2010 but behind 2006.
11:42 AM: Thanks to my staff for the long, hard work through election season and today. We have a potluck tradition on Election Day, and this year we're kicking it up a notch with a grillout. Here's our grillmaster Mark Kistler (his day job is as our real estate deputy).
10:09 AM. Our computer problems are resolved. The problem was getting the second voter lookup computer at each site to connect to the main master computer at the site. We always had at least one up and running, and the issues were only with voter lookup and not with the ballot readers. Sorry for any delays.
9:52 AM: 17 ballots arrived in today's mail. That leaves 76 out. DON'T mail them today! You need to BRING them in to our office. You can also turn them in unvoted at the poll. If you lost your absentee ballot, you can vote a provisional ballot.
Also, our final 9 AM count was 836 voters (0.96%). 489 Democrats, 263 Republicans. Numbers don't add up because three precincts didn't get us a party breakdown; it's the first primary where we've done that.
9:40 AM: With one precinct left to report 828 voters (0.95%). Compares to 1007 (1.3%) in 2006, and 720 (0.8%) in 2010. Next update 11 AM.
9:01 AM: Our first turnout update is underway! Watch this space. If you want to compare to past elections, look at 2006 and 2010 for the big picture. But remember: the precinct lines have changed since those elections.
8:20 AM: The National Weather Service has forecast the possibility of severe weather in Johnson County this afternoon.
In the event of severe weather such as tornado warnings, precinct officials are authorized to close polling places and seek shelter until the severe weather has passed. State law does not allow polling hours to be extended to make up for such closures. The urgent nature of weather warnings means our office will not be able to announce closings in advance.
For precedent, see this report on a similar event in the 2006 primary election.
8:07 AM: Precinct officials are experiencing computer problems at a number of Johnson County precincts. Our office is aware of the issues and working to resolve them. We thank the voters for their patience
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