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Council vote heads to recount
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · November 16, 2017
Write-in City Council candidate Andy Mundell said he requested a recount following what grew to a four-vote difference in the Nov. 7 election.
The Cedar County Auditor’s office received his written request Monday and a recount is pending.
“I don’t think it will change anything, but I thought I’d give it a shot,” Mundell said of the recount.
Mundell entered the race just a few days before the election, campaigning through Facebook and word-of-mouth.
Absentee ballots extended candidate Jodee Stoolman’s two-vote lead on election night to a four-vote lead.
Unofficial yet updated results posted by the Cedar County Auditor’s Office showed Nick Goodweiler with 167 votes, or 75.9 percent, up four votes from election-night figures. The new figures show 220 ballots cast, up from 218 on election night.
Stoolman received 97 votes, or 44.1 percent, up four from Nov. 7.
Mundell received 93 write-in votes, or 42.3 percent, up two since election night.
Mundell said any absentee ballots that arrived just before the deadline “would probably go Nick and Jodee’s way” since he announced his interest after most people would have mailed their ballots in.
The West Branch City Council had two seats opening and, until Mundell, two candidates.
Stoolman said she has “a sour taste in my mouth about this whole thing,” because some of her supporters did not vote, believing the city council race was uncontested.
Auditor Cari Dauber said the Cedar County Board of Supervisors officially canvassed the votes Tuesday morning and directed her to proceed with the recount.
According to Iowa election law, a recount board consists of three people: one designee selected the candidate requesting the recount, a second designee chosen by the apparent winning candidate, and a designee “chosen jointly” by the first two.
Mundell said West Branch resident Jodi Clemens agreed to serve as his designee. Stoolman said she will likely choose a designee, too, as she does not want to miss work.
“I’m not sweating it too much,” Stoolman said. “If I get beat, I get beat. I want it, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have run if I didn’t. ... I just wish I was able to go against him with everybody knowing that he was running.”
Mundell said he is wondering about the 14 “unresolved” write-in votes from the election, like if any had misspellings or were illegible.
“I hope that might give me a few,” he said. “We’ll see what they’re willing to count.”
County Election Deputy Jen Ahrens said on election day that “unresolved” votes could mean voters wrote in Mundell’s name but did not fill in the circle next to his name.
Should Stoolman and Mundell tie, Iowa election law requires “lots shall be drawn.”
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Editor's note: This story was updated Nov. 30 to correct the spelling of Jodi Clemens.
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