Getting to work

It’s been another eventful week at the Capitol! With session underway, members have begun filing bills and their schedules are filled with attend-ing various subcommittees and committees. While the first week is ceremonial and filled with many speeches, the fol-lowing week is where we really get down to work.
With all the snowy winter weather out there, please be safe on the roads. Take it slow, leave plenty of space between yourself and other vehicles, and give yourself extra time to make it to your destination. No one wants to end up in the ditch during this cold weather!
This year, one of the first orders of business is settling a contested election for a North-east Iowa House District, which are rare. The last contest that we have been able to find occurred in the Senate more than 20 years ago in 1993. The issue revolves around 29 absentee ballots that arrived after Election Day.
Following past precedent, we appointed a bipartisan committee of five legislators tasked with studying the issue. The committee met twice, heard arguments made by attorneys for both sides, reviewed the law, and gathered additional material necessary to make an informed decision. In order to ensure a fair and transparent process to hear the contest, we consulted with the Democratic leadership frequently and ac-commodated many of their re-quests.
The ballots in question ar-rived after Election Day and did not include a traditional postmark or what is known as an “Intelligent Mail barcode” (IMb).
What this contest essentially boils down to is the definition of “intelligent mail barcode”. We added the IMb language to Code in 2016, so our memory of the bill history is fresh in our mind.
The IMb is not just any barcode. An IMb is a specific product offered by the Post Office that County Auditors have the option of purchasing to track absentee ballots. After opting in, the County Auditor is able to generate a unique barcode within their office and place them on each individual ballot before being mailed to the voter. The county where the dispute exists did

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