As a former Iowa resident who saw the 6-vote margin of decision in Iowa’s Second Congressional District in 2020, I saw that the state’s recount laws could use a face lift. In 2025, the Iowa legislature, after previous fits and starts, has enacted much improved law. Some highlights of HF 928:

• Election officials will recount ballots, just like they count ballots in the first place, rather than outsource the job to a recount board
• Recounts occur when the margin is under 0.15%, rather than 1% (a significant improvement in cost and time, without affecting the likelihood of success of recounts)
• Recounts occur automatically, rather than at the behest of a candidate
• Recounts occur jurisdiction-wide, rather than in the counties or precincts a candidate chooses (which solves an equal protection problem)
• Recounts occur by the same mechanism as the count (typically by machine) across the jurisdiction, and hand counts are available only in extremely limited and narrow circumstances (solving another equal protection problem)

It’s not clear why the changes were voted along partisan lines–Democrats, for instance, were defending the recount board instead of election officials recounting ballots, although it’s not clear why Democrats would necessarily support it or Republicans necessarily oppose it–but the changes should be a strong, non-partisan improvement in Iowa elections.