GOP bills would overhaul Iowa election recounts, restrict absentee voting. Here's how:

Republican lawmakers are seeking to tighten and standardize Iowa's rules for election recounts after a high-profile congressional race in 2020 was decided by just six votes.

They also want to place new restrictions on absentee voting, same-day voter registrations and voter registration challenges. Democrats object that most of the changes are solutions in search of a problem and needless impediments to voters.

The 2020 contest between Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Rita Hart in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District saw a lengthy recount process that resulted in Miller-Meeks scraping out a win by a half-dozen votes.

In 2022, several state legislative districts also saw recounts, including House District 81 where the recount flipped an apparent lead to give Republican Luana Stoltenberg an 11-vote victory.

House File 356 would adjust the rules governing recounts, add a voter ID requirement for absentee ballots and require anyone challenging an Iowan's voter registration to post a bond.

"It creates uniformity across the state so everybody’s got the same rules and everybody understands what it looks like," said Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, the bill's sponsor.

House File 356 passed the State Government Committee Thursday, making it eligible for debate by the full House. But Kaufmann acknowledged the final version is likely to change based on feedback.

"At the subcommittee, I specifically said, 'Hey, this is the starting point because it was what we had last year. If there’s any additions or suggestions, I’m open to it,'" he said.

Jamie Cashman, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of County Auditors, said the group will have at least one request: Auditors would like to begin mailing absentee ballots to voters 25 days before the election, rather than the 20 days allowed under current law. He said that would help spread out the workload for election officials and ease voter confusion.

"What we’re seeing now is voters are going into the county courthouse and expecting to vote in person but they already have requested an absentee," Cashman said. "So we would like to see that changed."

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How would Iowa's recount rules change?

The House bill would require any recounts be conducted countywide, rather than only in certain precincts.

Candidates also would have to choose whether they want to request a machine or hand recount. Candidates would be required to use whichever method they choose in every county where they request a recount.

In 2020, some counties recounted ballots by hand, while others opted for machine recounts.

In addition, the legislation would change the size of recount boards, depending on the population of the county. Currently, all Iowa recount boards are made up of three members — one designated by the apparent winner, another designated by the apparent loser and a third member mutually agreed upon by the other two.

The bill would change that number, depending on the population of the county, keeping it at three people for counties under 15,000; raising it to a five-member board for counties between 15,000 and 49,999 people; and making it a seven-member board for counties with populations of 50,000 or more.

Cashman said auditors would like the threshold for expanding the recount board to be based on the number of votes cast in the race being recounted, rather than a county's population.

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The candidates would select their own designees to the recount board, but the remaining members would be precinct election officials chosen by the chief judge in the judicial district where the recount takes place.

Absentee ballots would require driver's license number or voter PIN

The House bill also would add an identification requirement when voters cast their absentee ballots.

Voters would have to write either their driver's license number or four-digit voter PIN on their absentee ballot envelope when voting early by mail or in person.

"You need your driver’s license or your voter ID PIN to request an absentee ballot in current law," Kaufmann said. "It mimics that exact thing and says you also need to put that on the return envelope for safety purposes."

Iowa Republicans passed a law requiring voter ID in 2017 and cut back Iowa's voting period in 2021, dropping it to 20 days from 29.

Democrats in the past have opposed Republican efforts to expand the state's voter identification laws, saying the requirements add hurdles that make it difficult for people to vote and could disenfranchise some.

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Every Democrat on the State Government Committee opposed the bill's passage Thursday.

Iowans would have to post bond to challenge someone's voter registration

Challenging someone's voter registration would now require the challenger to post a bond with the county auditor to cover the cost of determining whether the challenged voter's registration is valid.

If the voter's registration is invalid, the bond would be returned to the challenger. But if the voter is properly registered, the money would be sent to the county's general fund.

Kaufmann said the language was a request from county auditors after a surge in voter registration challenges last year.

Auditors in Linn and Black Hawk counties received hundreds of challenges, mostly for voters who were deemed inactive because they had not voted in the 2020 election, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported. Auditors said most of those voters had moved out of state and their registrations would have been canceled anyway for failing to vote in two consecutive elections.

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"Auditors were concerned about requests they were getting that were exorbitant in their cost of which they hadn’t been able to plan in their budgets," Kaufmann said. "And so this was a way of … ensuring that the claimant has some skin in the game."

Senate bills advance to add hurdles for voters who register at the polls, broaden challenges

In the Iowa Senate on Thursday, Republican lawmakers advanced a trio of bills sponsored by Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, that would put new hurdles in front of voters who register at the polls and expand who can challenge a voter's registration.

Senate File 342 would require voters to cast a provisional ballot if they register to vote on Election Day or at the polls when they vote early. Those votes would only be counted if a special board later determines the voter was eligible to cast a ballot.

Iowa currently allows same-day voter registration. Those voters can cast a normal ballot once they successfully register to vote at the polls, which involves providing an ID and proof of residency.

Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said she served as a poll worker during the 2020 election and Iowa's current system for verifying voters' identity is working.

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"My sense from everything that I’ve heard, seen from county auditors, is we’ve had clean, free and fair elections here in Iowa and I’m not sure what problem this is supposed to fix," she said.

Senate File 341 would require county auditors to create a log of each vote cast in their county in primary and general elections, organized in the order that votes were cast.

Critics said the bill could potentially allow observers to determine how someone voted by looking at when and where a vote was cast, compromising that person's right to a secret ballot.

Salmon disagreed.

"I think this is all just part of having the records needed to help ensure that we can keep fraud out of our system," Salmon said.

Senate File 351 would allow voter registrations to be challenged by residents of other counties and would waive the requirement that the challengers attend a hearing on the challenge.

Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, who chairs the State Government Committee, signed off on all three bills Thursday. But he said "it's not a foregone conclusion" that the legislation will pass his committee next week and survive the session's first "funnel" deadline.

"It’s my first year as chair," he said. "I’m looking to fill out my experience and to know what we may want to deal with next year."

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: These bills would overhaul Iowa rules for recounts, voting. Here's how