Are Paper Ballots Required on Tuesday?
Tuesday is municipal election day in Iowa. The Iowa code appears to require that small towns use paper ballots (not touchscreens) if turnout is expected to be light. Look here:
49.26 COMMISSIONER TO DECIDE METHOD OF VOTING –
COUNTING OF BALLOTS.
1. In all elections regulated by this chapter, the voting shall be by ballots printed and distributed as provided by law, or by voting machines meeting the requirements of chapter 52.
2. When voting machines are available for an election precinct, the commissioner shall determine in advance of each election conducted for a city of three thousand five hundred or less population or any school district in which voting occurs in that precinct whether voting there shall be by machine or paper ballot.
If the commissioner concludes, on the basis of voter turnout for recent similar elections and factors considered likely to affect voter turnout for the forthcoming election, that voting will probably be so light as to make preparation and use of paper ballots less expensive than preparation and use of a voting machine, paper ballots shall be used.
The quoted passage refers also to school board elections. As I reported in September, Pocahontas county used touchscreens for an uncontested election. By my reading of the code, that should not have happened.
In July I asked my auditor about the use of ordinary paper ballots versus the cost of preparing the touchscreens for minor elections. No answer so far, but its only been 100 days.