Good election turn out in Montgomery County

Election turnout for the 2023 city/school elections was better than expected.
Montgomery County Auditor said while the total number of registered voters was 7,135, the total votes cast of 1,101 ballots received was strong.
“For a city/school election, and with more than 1,100 ballots cast, we had a 15.43% turnout, which is good. Sometimes for a city/school election the turn out has been less than 10%, so 15% is a solid turn out,” commented Ozuna.
Overall, Ozuna said the election night process itself ran fairly smoothly, despite some new factors.
“We had new vote scanners, and we also had an update to our precinct atlas software for the laptops used to check in voters which had a few things revealed that we’ll need to improve. We did two training sessions with our poll workers, and that was very helpful. We could have probably had one more training session, but there’s never enough time to get it done. We do have things set up nicely for next year’s primary and we’ll be in a great spot for the general election next year,” advised Ozuna. “We didn’t have any incidents and no problems that brought us down. It was beneficial to have a light election to use the new machines, so we can have that hands-on experience. It will definitely help us next year, and we’ll have at least two training sessions, possibly three if we can pull it off. We’re kind of at the mercy of the Iowa Precinct Atlas Consortium and the Iowa Secretary of State’s office on when we can roll down updates and have ballots ready. Those were crunched this year at the last minute, and hopefully for the primaries, things will get done a lot sooner.”
Ozuna said the only thing that took time was the runners bringing back the sealed and locked FreedomVoteScanner machines and reports from the precincts to the courthouse. Ballots are reconciled and placed in sealed bags and brought back by the chair poll worker.
“It’s hard work getting all of the equipment back from the runners in a timely manner and balancing and getting it uploaded to election night reporting. It’s a lot of moving pieces,” explained Ozuna. “While we have less polling places, there are still seven precincts. The Gold Fair Building has precincts one and two, and Elliott and Grant are in the same building. We still have to set up for the same amount of voters, we’re just not setting up in as many places.”
Ozuna praised the continued availability of curbside voting for any voter that needed it. However, the limited time frame for absentee voting remains problematic.
“The absentee voting has been shortened from 20 days to 15, and I wish they would return to a 20-day time frame. It doesn’t give a whole lot of time for voters, and it especially doesn’t give a lot of time for people in the military to get their votes in,” Ozuna said.
The supervisors held its first canvass on Nov. 14, and the second canvass took place on Nov. 21. Ozuna explained why the canvass of results was split.
“City elections we can go first, because we have the unofficial results. We have to give the schools time to get their certifications to us for sharing, so they’re split into one week for city, and one week for the school,” Ozuna said.
Ozuna also expressed some disappointment over the lack of voting that took place in the City of Coburg.
“Not only did no one declare for the city council election, there were no votes at all from any Coburg citizens. It’s disappointing when no one votes, because you don’t want to see a city fail,” Ozuna commented.
The community of Stanton’s mayors race was another that had no declared candidates on the ballot. Ozuna praised write-in vote winner Matt Kutzli for agreeing to take the position.
“I got ahold of Matt Kutzli as soon as we got done tallying up the write-ins, and I think he was anticipating it, even though he didn’t know what the exact numbers were. As soon as I shared the news, he was ready to say he would handle the task, which was great,” Ozuna stated.
While this year’s city/school elections had several write-in races and close outcomes, Ozuna said the area communities seem to have agreed with the results.
“We haven’t had anyone contest the results of a race, nor has anyone asked for any recounts,” Ozuna said.
Ozuna offered special praise to all of the county’s poll workers for their efforts on election day, as well as the assistance from local law enforcement for being runners which makes a huge impact on election integrity.
“Our poll workers and runners are truly spectacular. They work long hours, and they’re all dedicated. They are truly the best. They don’t get paid enough for all of their hard work, for sure, and they can attest to that. I would really love to see that increase for them. Statewide, when I go to all the other seat trainings and listen to other counties, they are paying their poll workers quite a bit more, and I’m hoping to see a pay increase on this year’s budget for our poll workers. They really deserve it. It’s a long day, they don’t get any overtime, and sometimes they’re working 17 or 18 hours a day. I also want to praise the election chairs, and my staff. Most everyone in the auditor’s office is new. Beth Peterson is the only one who has been in the office working elections for a long time, and thanks to her and all our training, we rocked it. Everyone did a great job.”
Ozuna also conducted a successful post-election audit of the November city/school election on Nov. 15.
Ballots in Precinct Five were hand counted by election officials to ensure they matched the totals reported by the ballot tabulator.
The precinct was randomly selected by the Secretary of State following Election Day. The City of Grant Mayor Race was audited. The results matched 100%. 
 “The hand count audit shows that our machines tabulate accurately and further restores integrity of our election process,” commented Ozuna.
Secretary of State Paul Pate also expressed his appreciation to the auditors in the state, as well as poll workers for their hard work this year.
“We conducted another fair, secure election in Iowa, and these hand-count audits are one more way we ensure the integrity of the vote,” advised Pate.
Every ballot tabulator in Iowa undergoes a public pre-election test to ensure it will count votes accurately on Election Day. Post-election audits are mandatory in all 99 counties following each election. 
For the city/school election, one randomly chosen precinct in each county is required to conduct a post-election audit to verify the machine count.
For more information about election security in Iowa, visit the Secretary of State’s website at sos.iowa.gov. Information about the voting process is available at VoterReady.Iowa.gov.
Questions about the post-election audit and other election matters may be directed to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office at 623-5127.