Absentee vote recount needed in House District 99 race between Dennis Cohoon and Matt Rinker

It may be several days before voters in House District 99 know the winner of the race between Democratic incumbent Dennis Cohoon and Republican challenger and Burlington city councilman Matt Rinker.

Due to an issue with Des Moines County's absentee vote count, an administrative recount of absentee votes will take place before the vote canvass on Nov. 15, according to Des Moines County Auditor Terri Johnson.

"Two of the sessions created for the absentee ballots did not show up on the results page and the sessions created an issue that I am not comfortable with," Johnson said in a statement. "Therefore, I will be asking the Board of Supervisors for an administrative recount for the absentee ballots."

According to Johnson, of the 4,431 Des Moines County absentee votes processed, the results for only approximately 3,600 were showing up during the vote count Tuesday night.

"The voting results are always unofficial on election night. However, we had an issue with the absentee ballots," Johnson told The Hawk Eye. "Some of the sessions were unloaded, but they are not showing up in the results, so we're trying to figure that out."

More:Supervisor race results

Johnson said her office will be working with the Secretary of State's office for guidance and to determine what the next steps will be.

The initial vote count from Lee and Des Moines County on Tuesday night showed Rinker with the lead in the race.

In Lee County, Rinker led Cohoon 533-205. And in Des Moines County, Rinker led Cohoon 4,767-4,324.

But Johnson noted that Des Moines County vote count included a combination of precinct votes and the absentee votes in question.

In the statement, Johnson apologized for the delay in the vote count and said the public will be informed when the recount will take place.

More:Meet the candidates for Iowa House District 99

How Des Moines County residents voted in other races

As of Nov. 5, there were 27,810 registered voters in Des Moines County. Of those, 10,035 are registered as Democrats, 9,356 claim no party and 8,177 are registered as Republicans.

According to unofficial results, however, Des Moines County has gone red, with Republicans being favored by most county voters in every race, though that could change in some cases following the absentee ballot recount. Here's a how candidates in other contested races faired in Des Moines County:

U.S. Senator

• Michael Franken (D): 5,240; 42.45%

• *Chuck Grassley (R): 7,132; 57.65%

U.S. Representative

• Christina Bohannan (D): 5,165; 40.94%

• *Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R): 7,451; 59.06%

Governor and lieutenant governor

• Deidre DeJear and Eric Van Lancher (D): 4,617; 36.51%

• *Kim Reynolds and Adam Gregg (R): 7,673; 60.68%

• Rick Stewart and Marco Battaglia (L): 355; 2.82%

Secretary of state

• Joel Miller (D): 4,993; 40.20%

• *Paul Pate (R): 7,427; 59.8%

State auditor

• Rob Sand (D): 5,824; 47.09%

• *Todd Halbur (R): 6,545; 52.91%

State treasurer

• Michael Fitzgerald (D): 5,669; 45.8%

• *Roby Smith (R): 6,709; 54.2%

Secretary of agriculture

• John Norwood (D): 4,798; 38.93%

• *Mike Naig (R): 7,526; 61.07%

Attorney general

• Tom Miller (D): 5,653; 45.45%

• *Brenna Bird (R): 6,785; 54.55%

State representative of District 99**

• Dennis Cohoon (D): 4,324; 47.56%

• Matthew Rinker (R): 4,767; 52.44%

Des Moines County supervisor

• Sandy Dockendorff (D): 4,643; 37.14%

• *Tom Broeker (R): 7,859; 62.86%

Declared winners are identified by *, and ** indicates the race has yet to be decided.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: House District 99 race between Cohoon and Rinker heading for recount