Springville mayor preparing to contest his election defeat

Mayor Rick Heeren has taken steps to employ a rarely used procedure in Iowa to contest the Nov. 5 election in which City Council member Roger Shebetka defeated him in the mayor's race by five votes.

Heeren on Thursday said he has notified the Linn County Auditor that he is interested in contesting the election result because of possible improprieties during the voting process.

"I don't think a revote would be out of the question because there are a lot of questions being raised," Heeren said.

Mayor Heeren received 137 votes in the mayor's race, five fewer than mayoral challenger Roger Shebetka, a City Council member.

Heeren said he had at least two concerns about the voting on Election Day.

Firstly, he said he was told that Linn County precinct workers opened a ballot machine several times during voting hours and took ballots which had been cast to another room to "straighten them up and put them back in the box."

Secondly, he said he had questions about a supporter or supporters of his opponent at the polling site who may have been telling voters how to vote.

"There were people helping people vote and showing them how to vote and who to vote for," he said. "…It was somebody they should have thrown out, but they didn't when it was brought to their attention."

Shebetka on Thursday said he has heard postelection scuttlebutt in Springville, but that's all. He said the county election officials who oversaw the Nov. 5 vote at the polling place in the Springville Public Library have done the election-day work for years.

"People vote the way they want to vote, and obviously, the majority voted for me," Shebetka said. "And that's all I know. I don't have a clue what Rick's up to. … In my opinion, I think he's just being a sore loser. It's a sour grapes type of thing."

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller on Thursday said his office now has spoken to the three election workers on duty at the Springville polling site, and he said not all three recount events on Election Day in the same way.

However, Miller said precinct election officials employed by his office typically must open up ballot machines during the voting process to tidy up ballots. The scanning machines used by Linn County, he said, are designed to sort ballots into two stacks, one that consists of ballots with write-in votes and one that doesn't. Sometimes, the ballot boxes need to be opened to straighten up the stacks, Miller said. Election officials are allowed to touch ballots that have been cast as long as two precinct workers are participating, he said.

Miller said Heeren's second allegation involves a claim that a supporter of Shebetka's spent too much time in and around the polling site. People are not supposed to be at a polling place telling people how to vote the day of the election, which is "electioneering" not permitted by law, he said.

"Nobody believes that ballots were handled inappropriately," Miller said of his office's interviews with the three election workers. "There may be an accusation of electioneering, but we can't confirm that at this time.

"So the best remedy for this, if people have questions about the election, is to contest the election. Because we don't want there to be any questions about the results."

On Monday, Miller said he will obtain permission from the Linn County Board of Supervisors to conduct a recount of the votes in the race. This will feature a ballot-by-ballot examination and counting of the votes, he said.

The process to contest the election will follow if Heeren or other voters request it. Ten signatures are required on a petition to launch the contest process.

A court-like process would ensure with the court comprised of a representative of each candidate and a third party chosen by them or the presiding judge of the District Court.

The three members hear evidence and make a decision, with a majority, not unanimity, required. The matter can subsequently be appealed to the District Court.

Miller said the goal would be to resolve the matter by the start of January when the new term for a Springville mayor starts.