Linn County explores possibility of stand-alone elections office

CEDAR RAPIDS — In the days leading up to the 2024 presidential election, there were times that lines for early voting wound through the basement of the Jean Oxley Public Services Center, up the stairs, out the door and down the street.

Linn County Policy and Administration Director Darrin Gage said that fact could be attributed in part to the growing popularity of absentee in-person voting, but it also spoke to the complex and growing space needs of the Linn County Auditor’s Office.

“The requirement to bring the mail-in (voting) operations in-house and then the rise in popularity of early and absentee voting has really, really dramatically increased numbers since we came back to this building,” Gage said. “This building was never contemplated to hold those kinds of operations.”

The auditor’s office, which is responsible for overseeing all Linn County elections, is one of several county departments to operate out of the Jean Oxley building at 935 Second St. SW in Cedar Rapids, but county leaders have long pondered whether it’s truly the best place for election services.

The Linn County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday took the first step toward exploring potential alternatives via its approval of a contract with Emergent Architecture for master planning services for a potential stand-alone elections office.

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The firm will assess county-owned land near the Public Services Center to identify which parcel would work best for the construction of such an office and to communicate with county staff about features desired in a potential site plan.

The agreement does not guarantee that the county will proceed with the project, although it does designate a concrete step toward the potential achievement of a longtime county goal.

“An election building is something that previous boards have been speaking about for a number of years,” Gage said. “But the derecho and COVID and then later state legislation really changed the county’s financial reality (and) funding priorities, … and that’s why it hasn’t been pursued” already.

The land under consideration for the office includes several plots across the street from the Jean Oxley building, near the former Cedar Rapids Lumber Co. and old Davidson Auto buildings.

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Linn County Auditor Todd Taylor said a stand-alone elections office would help centralize and streamline elections operations. The office currently must spread out its operations and storage throughout the Jean Oxley building, if not further in the case of some off-site storage.

A stand-alone office would centralize those operations and free up space at the public services building for other county business. The building would be specifically used for elections while other auditors office operations such as accounting and real estate services would continue at Jean Oxley.

“What we’re trying to do is deliver essential government services into the future,” Taylor said. “Voting is a fundamental right. It’s very, very important, and we want to do it well for the people.”

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The county will pay Emergent Architecture $9,500 to complete its preliminary report for review by the Board of Supervisors within the next four to six months.

The study will be funded through the Linn County Auditor’s Office regular budget, although if the project proceeds it will need to go through the county’s capital improvement planning and budgeting process.

Supervisors on Wednesday unanimously approved the agreement with each citing a desire to learn more about potential improvements to the county’s election services.

“You guys just did an election, and you work really hard to ensure integrity of the votes,” District 1 Supervisor Kirsten Running-Marquardt told Taylor. “I think this (project) would just add to that further, and the people of Linn County should be proud to be behind a project like this.”

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