57.1 - STANDING TO BRING CONTEST -- GROUNDS FOR CONTEST.
57.1 STANDING TO BRING CONTEST -- GROUNDS FOR
CONTEST.
1. Elections may be contested under this chapter as follows:
a. The election of any person to any county office, to a seat
in either branch of the general assembly, to a state office, to the
office of senator or representative in Congress, or to the office of
presidential elector may be contested by any eligible person who
received votes for the office in question.
b. The outcome of the election on a public measure may be
contested by petition of the greater of ten eligible electors or a
number of eligible electors equaling one percent of the total number
of votes cast upon the public measure; each petitioner must be a
person who was entitled to vote on the public measure in question or
would have been so entitled if registered to vote.
2. Grounds for contesting an election under this chapter are:
a. Misconduct, fraud or corruption on the part of any
election official or of any board of canvassers of sufficient
magnitude to change the result of the election.
b. That the incumbent was not eligible to the office in
question at the time of election.
c. That prior to the election the incumbent had been duly
convicted of a felony, as defined in section 701.7, and that the
judgment had not been reversed, annulled, or set aside, nor the
incumbent pardoned or restored to the rights of citizenship by the
governor under chapter 914, at the time of the election.
d. That the incumbent has given or offered to any elector, or
any precinct election official or canvasser of the election, any
bribe or reward in money, property, or thing of value, for the
purpose of procuring the incumbent's election.
e. That illegal votes have been received or legal votes
rejected at the polls, sufficient to change the result of the
election.
f. Any error in any board of canvassers in counting the
votes, or in declaring the result of the election, if the error would
affect the result.
g. That the public measure or office was not authorized or
required by state law to appear on the ballot at the election being
contested.
h. Any other cause or allegation which, if sustained, would
show that a person other than the incumbent was the person duly
elected to the office in question, or would show the outcome of the
election on the public measure in question was contrary to the result
declared by the board of canvassers. Section History: Early Form
[C51, § 339, 341, 368, 380, 387; R60, § 569, 571, 598, 610, 617;
C73, § 692, 718, 730, 737; C97, § 1198; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §
981; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 57.1; 81
Acts, ch 34, § 39] Section History: Recent Form
86 Acts, ch 1112, § 3; 2002 Acts, ch 1134, §72, 115
Referred to in § 62.5