Fort Madison bond vote recount planned

FORT MADISON, Iowa — Ballots cast on the Fort Madison School District's $30 million bond referendum earlier this month will be recounted.

The recount, set for 8:30 a.m. Monday in the garage behind the Lee County jail, is the result of a petition of 30 signatures submitted to the Lee County Auditor's office last week following a canvass of the votes by the Board of Supervisors.

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According to Iowa Code 50.49, recount petitions must be signed by 1 percent of total voters and submitted within three days of the election canvass.

According to official results of 2,959 ballots cast in the referendum, 1,775 were in favor of allowing the district to bond up to $30 million to build a new elementary school and softball and baseball fields, and 1,202 voted against it. Eighteen more votes in favor would have given the bond the supermajority approval it needed to pass.

Lee County Auditor Denise Fraise said there were no problems with the ballot machines the day of the vote, so it is unlikely the recount will yield the additional "yes" votes to raise voter approval of the bond to the required 60 percent.

The auditor's office met with petitioners Tuesday to select their designees to conduct the recount. One designee must be someone who signed the petition and another is selected by the auditor's office. Those representatives then select a third.

Representing petitioners will be Carol Ross, a member of the Fort Madison School Board. The auditor's office selected Southeastern Community College vice chairwoman Janet Fife-LaFrenz of Keokuk.

"We thought she'd be a good because she doesn't have a stake in the matter," Fraise said.

Fife-LaFrenz and Ross chose Marge Wilhelm, a retired Central Lee superintendent, as the third designee.

"They can choose to hand count or run (the ballots) through the machine or both," Fraise said.

This will be the second recount Fraise will see in her 21 years with the Lee County Auditor's office. The only other recount was for a narrow four votes difference between county supervisor candidates.

Tribune Content Agency
School bonds Iowa
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