Pleasant Valley School Board member wants to join recount case
A Pleasant Valley School Board member wants to become involved in a lawsuit against the Scott County Board of Supervisors, according to Scott County Court records.
Pleasant Valley School Board Member Jameson Smith, in records filed electronically on Jan. 8, filed a “motion to intervene” as a defendant.
Smith is not currently named in the suit. A hearing on his motion is set for Feb. 1 via Zoom, court records show.
Earlier lawsuit
Tracey Rivera, a Pleasant Valley School Board write-in candidate, earlier filed a lawsuit against the Scott County Board of Supervisors for its rejection of election recount results.
The board (comprised of Ken Beck, John Maxwell, Jean Dickson, Ross Paustian and Rita Rawson in their official capacity) is named as a defendant in the suit filed Dec. 22, 2023, in Scott County Court. The board, the suit says, is responsible for certifying the finds from election recounts, according to Iowa law.
The action concerns the certification of the recount of the November 2023 general election for the school board.
Rivera asked for a recount of the Nov. 7 election results. Rivera designated Arun Pillutla for the recount board, and Candidate Jameson Smith designated Cyndi Diercks for the recount board. Chief Judge Henry Latham appointed retired Judge Mark Smith as the third member.
On Nov. 27 and 28, the three-person panel conducted a recount. Diercks announced a tie of 255 to 255, the suit says.
The Scott County Auditor “made a statement to the Board of Supervisors and reported the recount resulted in a tie,” the suit says, stating “Since there is a tie, a drawing must be held to determine the winner.”
The suit claims the board voted 3-2 to reject the election result of a tie “and knowingly proceeded outside of its jurisdiction and the law,” and did not give Rivera “an equal opportunity to serve on the Pleasant Valley School Board.”
The suit says the Board of Supervisors’ vote is “contrary to Iowa law” and “Iowa law does not permit the Board of Supervisors to reject a recount board’s report.”
‘Motion to intervene’
When someone who is not a party to an ongoing lawsuit wants to become a party in the case, that person must file a “motion to intervene.”
In his motion to intervene, Smith says he was a candidate for Seat 6 of the Pleasant Valley School Board in the election conducted on Nov. 7, 2023. He was declared the winner at the canvass of votes conducted by the Scott County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 14, 2023, the motion says.
Smith defeated write-in candidate Tracey Rivera, documents say. After the canvass of votes, Rivera requested a recount of the results of the election. The recount board met on Nov. 27 and 28, 2023.
The motion says “The actions of the recount board are disputed, but the final result was a report submitted by the recount board in a 2-1 vote that purported to show the race between Smith and Rivera tied at 255 votes each. The Board of Supervisors met on December 4, 2023, to review the results of the recount board.”
Smith’s motion says the recount board’s report contained two deficiencies. “First, the report did not document scatterings, overvotes, and undervotes, by precinct,” the motion says, and the Iowa Code “requires the recount board to report to the Board of Supervisors to allow the original canvass to be corrected as required. Because of this deficiency, the Board of Supervisors could not correct its original canvass of votes as provided by Iowa Code.”
Additionally, Smith says in documents that the recount board’s report had an obvious tabulation error because Smith’s vote total had been reduced from 256 to 255 without explanation.
According to the Iowa Code, the Board of Supervisors is empowered to correct “obvious clerical errors in the tally lists,” the motion says.
The Board of Supervisors voted to declare Smith the winner at its Dec. 7, 2023, meeting because the recount board’s report did not permit the Board of Supervisors to correct its original canvass and because the report contained an obvious clerical error, according to the motion.
In his motion, Smith says “Although the Board of Supervisors was correct to declare him the winner, the Board of Supervisors lacks the same interest in preserving this result as does Smith.”
“No party will be prejudiced by permitting Smith to intervene,” the motion says.
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