Update: Write-in candidate Darrold Brink request recount in Waukon election

Thursday afternoon, November 7 the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors canvassed the results of the city elections held in Waukon Tuesday, November 5. The results of other City elections held last Tuesday will be canvassed by the Board Tuesday, November 12. County Auditor Denise Beyer explained that because the City of Waukon has runoff provisions in its code, its election results needed to be canvassed earlier than the other elections. She said that Waukon's runoff provisions require that a runoff election be held in any race in which no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, which did occur in the election for the at-large council seat currently held by Joe Cunningham.
In that election, incumbent Cunningham received 312 votes while write-in candidate Darrold Brink received 281. However, due to what Beyer called a "scattering" of 34 write-in votes, neither candidate received more than 50% of the votes cast. A runoff election has been scheduled for Tuesday, December 3.
Beyer also requested an administrative recount for Ward 2 due to the closeness of the election and an equipment malfunction at the polling site. Beyer said that after the polls closed, election workers were unable to "close out" the election machine, apparently due to a malfunction in the machine's clock and calendar. Beyer said that she was able to print out the election results from the machine's memory card, but by that time the election workers had already conducted a hand count of the ballots. Beyer went on to say that the summary tape printed by the machine did not precisely match the results of the hand count conducted by the poll workers because during the hand count, the election workers were allowed to count write-in votes where the voter had not marked the box indicating the selection of a write-in candidate; the machine does not count such votes. The Board approved Beyer's request for a recount of the votes in the City Council and mayoral election for Ward 2. That recount will be conducted Friday, November 8 at 1 p.m. in the Auditor's office.
Beyer also presented the Board with a request from John Ellingson for recount in the Ward 3 Council race, which he lost 102-82 to write-in candidate Don Steffens, according to the official results. Beyer explained that Ellingson and Steffens would each appoint a representative to a recount board, and those representatives would need to agree on a third person to sit on the recount board. The Board approved the recount request and Beyer said that the recount, which will only include the votes for the Ward 3 Council seat, would be scheduled as soon as possible. The Board also certified the official election results for Ward 3, declaring Steffens the winner, but may canvass the results again if necessary following the recount.
The Board also certified the results of other Waukon elections, declaring incumbent Steve Wiedner the winner of the Ward 1 Council seat, with 161 votes to Jason Dahlstrom's 85 write-in votes; Loren Benke as the winner of the mayoral election with 378 votes to 264 write-in votes for Keith Schroeder; and Patty Fossaen and Rev Lonning as winners in the uncontested election for two Hospital Trustee positions.

Update:
Following the administrative recount of Ward 2 in the Waukon City election requested by County Auditor Denise Beyer, the total votes for the at-large council seat stand at 312 votes for incumbent Joe Cunningham and 304 votes for write-in candidate Darrold Brink. With the initial tally showing 628 votes cast, it appeared that a runoff election would be required, as neither candidate received over 50% of the votes. However, the recount of Ward 2 held Friday afternoon, November 8 revealed that nine of those votes were "no votes," where voters neither marked the circle for a candidate nor wrote in a name in the space provided. After consulting with the Iowa Secretary of State's office, Beyer determined that those nine "no votes" would not be included in the total vote tally used to calculate the percentage of votes received by each candidate. However, after later consulting with the company that manufactured the voting machines used in the November 5 election, Beyer learned that the "no votes" had not been recorded as votes for the final vote tally, so those 9 votes did not need to be subtracted from the number of total votes, leaving the total as it was determined after the Ward 2 recount, in which neither candidate received more than 50% of the votes. A runoff election has been scheduled for December 3 based on the results as they now stand. That may yet change again, as Brink has requested a recount for Wards 1 and 3, which could change the vote totals again. Neither that recount, nor the recount requested by John Ellingson for the Ward 3 Council seat have yet been scheduled.