Iowa Code § 57.1 (2026)

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. [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] 86 Acts, ch 1112, §3; 2002 Acts, ch 1134, §72, 115 Referred to in §62.5, 388.2A \n