47.2 County commissioner of elections.

1. The county auditor of each county is designated as the county commissioner of elections in each county. The county commissioner of elections shall conduct voter registration pursuant to chapter 48A and conduct all elections within the county.

2. When an election is to be held as required by law or is called by a political subdivision of the state and the political subdivision is located in more than one county, the county commissioner of elections of the county having the greatest taxable base within the political subdivision shall conduct that election. The county commissioners of elections of the other counties in which the political subdivision is located shall cooperate with the county commissioner of elections who is conducting the election.

3. The commissioner may designate as a deputy county commissioner of elections any officer of a political subdivision who is required by law to accept nomination papers filed by candidates for office in that political subdivision, and when so designated that person shall assist the commissioner in administering elections conducted by the commissioner for that subdivision. The designation of a person as a deputy commissioner of elections pursuant to this section, once made, shall continue in effect until the designation is withdrawn by the commissioner.

4. The commissioner shall assign each local public measure a letter for identification purposes. The public measure on the ballot shall be identified by the letter.

a. The county commissioner who is responsible under subsection 2 for conducting the elections held for a political subdivision which lies in more than one county shall assign the letter to the public measure.

b. The county commissioners of elections of the other counties in which the political subdivision is located shall not assign the same letter to a local public measure on the ballot in their counties during the same election.

5. The office of county auditor or county commissioner of elections in each county shall be open for at least eight hours on the Saturday preceding a general election, primary election, or special election called by the governor for the purpose of receiving absentee ballots and conducting other official business relating to the election.

6. On the final date for filing nomination papers in the commissioner’s office the office shall be open until the time for receiving nomination papers has passed.

[C73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §47.2; 81 Acts, ch 34, §9]

84 Acts, ch 1291, §3; 89 Acts, ch 136, §31; 94 Acts, ch 1169, §46; 2008 Acts, ch 1032, §201

Referred to in §39.3, 44.4, 48A.2, 49.51, 50.48, 52.25, 53.40, 68A.102, 260C.15, 260C.22, 260C.28, 277.6, 277.20, 331.661, 331.753, 376.4, 376.6

For future amendment to subsection 2, effective July 1, 2019, see 2017 Acts, ch 155, §15, 44