Story County to hand-count 13 precincts' ballots after machine failure

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to add new information.

Story County vote watchers were bracing for a long night.

Voting machines inside some precincts didn’t work Tuesday, and local political party leaders said election workers must count ballots by hand at those sites after polls close at 8 p.m.

Story County Auditor Lucy Martin said machines did not read “certain ballot styles” at about 12 of the county’s 45 polling locations.

Live election updates:Follow along as for full 2024 election coverage and results

“We don’t know why,” she said. “The ballots were tested. The machines were tested.”

Martin will ask the Story County supervisors during a special meeting Thursday morning to approve a recount. Ashley Esquivel Hunt, a spokesperson for Iowa’s Secretary of State Office, said department employees know about the problems in Story county.

“The auditor is working with the vendor and our office to resolve it,” she said. “It is not stopping anyone from casting a single ballot. It may impact how quickly we can report the results.”

Story County Republican and Democratic party leaders said Tuesday that the machine problems will not impact whether election officials count a voter’s ballot.

Voters fill out their ballots by filling bubbles next to their preferred candidates and issues with pens. They slide the completed paper forms into machines, which tally their decisions. But Brett Barker, chair of the Story County Republican Party and an Iowa House District 51 candidate, said some machines spit ballots back at voters.

He said election workers are piling the ballots into locked boxes on site. In some locations, he added, the boxes can’t hold every ballot. Election workers are putting the rest of the ballots into secure bags that they keep on site.

Barker said the workers are supposed to keep bags and boxes in areas of the precincts where political party representatives and any other interested residents can monitor them.

Story County poll workers were still tallying votes at the auditor's offices in Nevada as the calendar turned to Wednesday. Ninety-four of Iowa's 99 counties had reported their results in the 2024 general election. None of the county's 45 precincts had reported, 13 of which had issues, according to the auditor's office.

Story County did not have any contested races during the 2024 election cycle, as a single supervisor, auditor and sheriff seats were unopposed.

More:The Story County sheriff, auditor and a supervisor are running unopposed on November ballot

There were 13 precincts with issues counting ballots today throughout Story County.

The ballots that were unable to be counted at precincts are being brought to the Auditor's office by a bipartisan team to run them through a counter. There is no estimate on the number of affected ballots.

More:Election 2024 results from the US presidential race and races in Story and Boone County

The Republican Party had received reports about problems at nine of the county’s 45 sites: Indian Creek Township, LaFayette Township, Lincoln Township, McCallsburg, Nevada, Palestine Township, Richland Township, Story City and Zearing.

Like Barker, Story County Democratic Party Chair Madalyn Anderson heard voting machines did not work at one of Story City’s two precincts. She also heard about problems inside the Story County Conservation Center, where Milford Township residents vote.

An Ames Tribune photographer, meanwhile, reported that election workers were not using machines inside Bethesda Lutheran Church in northern Ames on Tuesday morning.

Barker said election workers have tried to bring touchscreens to the affected precincts. He said the auditor’s office used the machines during the early voting period, and employees needed to reprogram them.

Anderson and Barker said election workers representing both political parties were at each polling location. Barker said the local Republicans are trying to recruit more poll watchers to observe ballots at the impacted precincts. He encouraged any concerned resident to join after polls close.

“This is mostly about reassuring the public that their votes are counted,” he said. “If we are able to say things are observed, we can reassure people.”

“I have high confidence in our auditor,” Anderson said.

Rose Rollenhagen, secretary of the Story County Democrats, was worried about public perception when she heard about the machines’ problems Tuesday morning. She has lived in the county for more than 30 years and said the voting machines had never failed here before.

“So sorry to hear that, especially in this election,” she said. “Immediately, it’s considered suspicious, which surely it’s not.”

Some Republican leaders, including presidential candidate Donald Trump, have accused Democrats without evidence of attempting to rig the election. In his closing campaign rally, Trump said he should not have vacated the White House after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.