Iowa Code § 49.53 (2026)

1. The commissioner shall not less than four nor more than twenty days before the day of each election, except those for which different publication requirements are prescribed by law, publish notice of the election. The notice shall list the names of all candidates or nominees and the office each seeks, and all public questions, to be voted upon at the election. The notice shall also state the date of the election, the hours the polls will be open, that each voter is required to provide identification at the polling place before the voter can receive and cast a ballot, the location of each polling place at which voting is to occur in the election, and the names of the precincts voting at each polling place. The notice shall include the full text of all public measures to be voted upon at the election. The notice may contain one or more facsimiles of the portion of the ballot containing the first arrangement of candidates as prescribed by section 49.31, subsection 2.

2. The notice shall be published in at least one newspaper, as defined in section 618.3, which is published in the county or other political subdivision in which the election is to occur or, if no newspaper is published there, in at least one newspaper of substantial circulation in the county or political subdivision. For the general election or the primary election the foregoing notice shall be published in at least two newspapers published in the county. However, if there is only one newspaper published in the county, publication in one newspaper shall be sufficient. [C51, §1110; R60, §463, 2027, 2030; C73, §578, 1718, 1719; C97, §1062, 1112, 2746, 2750, 2751, 2755; S13, §1087-a12, 2750, 2755; C24, §508, 550, 551, 790, 4195, 4197, 4208; C27, §508, 550, 551, 790, 4195, 4197, 4208, 4211-b1, 4216-b3; C31, 35, §508, 550, 551, 590, 4216-c3; C39,\n\nTue Dec 09 22:31:06 2025 Iowa Code 2026, Chapter 49 (55, 2) §49.53, METHOD OF CONDUCTING ELECTIONS 24\n\n§508, 550, 551, 790, 4216.03; C46, 50, 54, §39.5, 43.23, 43.24, 49.72, 277.3; C58, 62, 66, 71, 73, §39.5, 43.23, 43.24, 43.29, 49.72, 277.3; C75, 77, 79, 81, §49.53] 87 Acts, ch 221, §15; 89 Acts, ch 136, §40; 93 Acts, ch 143, §17; 98 Acts, ch 1123, §5; 2002 Acts, ch 1134, §33, 115; 2007 Acts, ch 190, §2; 2009 Acts, ch 57, §29; 2017 Acts, ch 110, §22, 35, 36; 2021 Acts, ch 147, §28, 54; 2022 Acts, ch 1021, §22 Referred to in §28A.6, 39.6, 49.49, 49.54, 49.73, 49.128, 49.129, 52.35, 260C.15, 260C.39, 275.35, 296.4, 298.18, 331.305, 346.27, 364.2, 368.3, 368.19, 384.26, 394.2 Publication of ballot, city elections, §376.5 \n