Polk County auditor sides with Iowa Senate leader Jack Whitver in voter registration challenge

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver is a valid resident of the Grimes district where he won election, the Polk County auditor decided Monday, defeating a voter registration challenge leveraged against him last month.

Whitver, a Republican, was reelected to represent Iowa Senate District 23, which includes Grimes and parts of rural Polk and Dallas counties.

However, allegations arose ahead of the election that Whitver did not actually live in the Grimes condominium where he claimed residence. An investigation by KCRG-TV and KCCI-TV reported that public records show the Grimes address wasn't using water. Whitver disputed that claim.

Soon after, Grimes resident Ann Gale filed a challenge against Whitver's voter registration, alleging that Whitver and his family still lived in Ankeny. She cited water bills through September, social media posts, and the account of a political door-knocker who spoke to Whitver's wife at the Ankeny house in October.

Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald, a Democrat, held a hearing on the matter in late November. A representative for Whitver presented paperwork that showed his change of address in September, as well as photos of his furnished Grimes residence and several dozen screenshots of Whitver's Apple Maps location that showed he was at the Grimes condo during early morning and late night hours between Sept. 14 and Nov. 30.

Fitzgerald issued a written statement Monday that Gale provided insufficient evidence to prove that Whitver did not live in Grimes. Therefore, he wrote, Whitver is a Grimes resident and the challenge is rejected.

"(Gale's) dated social media, websites and water bill evidence prior to Mr. Whitver's September 2022 move to Grimes is found to be insufficient to overcome the presumption that Mr. Whitver's declared residency is valid and his submitted evidence," Fitzgerald wrote.

Whitver said last week that the challenge was "just a partisan attempt to try to discredit an election."

"Everything they brought up was a non-issue, and there's plenty of evidence that shows that I have made that my actual and permanent residence through what is required under the code," Whitver said in an interview with the Des Moines Register.

The hearing revealed that Whitver did not vote in the primary or general election this year. Whitver said he decided not to vote in the June primary because he was running in Grimes but still living in the newly redistricted Ankeny district. Whitver said he "didn't want to create any kind of confusion or improper voting with that."

Whitver said he planned to vote on the evening of Election Day, but then he heard that somebody was waiting at the polling location to challenge his voter registration.

"I had never heard of someone getting their vote challenged as they're trying to go in and vote. … By the time we could figure out what this challenge was and what was happening, it was already eight o'clock, and so I didn't vote," Whitver said.

Whitver is the top Republican in the Iowa Senate. The GOP won a 34-16 supermajority in the November 8 election.

Stephen Gruber-Miller contributed reporting.

Katie Akin is a politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at kakin@registermedia.com or at 410-340-3440. Follow her on Twitter at @katie_akin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Sen. Jack Whitver is a Grimes resident, county auditor rules