As Nov. 5 quickly approaches, the Black Hawk County courthouse has prepared itself for the swath of citizens ready to exercise their civic duty this election season. Elections Manager Karen Showalter embraces the challenge of helping Black Hawk County residents vote, helping 800 residents vote last Monday, Oct. 21.
Showalter, a UNI alumnus, has been helping run elections at the Black Hawk county courthouse for eight years as elections manager. Showalter attended UNI for both her undergraduate and masters degrees. “I studied political communication at UNI, which became a program my sophomore year of college. I was political science, but after I saw the political communication program I decided that’s what I wanted to do,” said Showalter. After working in a few different positions in the political landscape, Showalter returned to study non-profit management for her master’s. After working at a food bank for seven years, the elections manager position for Black Hawk County opened up, and Showalter took her chance. “It really seemed like something up my alley,” said Showalter.
Showalter has now served as elections manager for eight years, taking on the role almost directly before the 2016 presidential election. “Probably not my best idea,” laughed Showalter. “But we figured it out!” Since then, she has presided over 40 elections for Black Hawk County, from presidential and gubernatorial, to special elections. Showalter’s list of responsibilities as election manager during a presidential election cycle seem nearly daunting. She oversees the hiring and training of polling employees at the courthouse, creates, orders and manages ballots, and manages post-election work for the courthouse. “Whatever election we’re doing, we have to do the same things. The volume is just much higher for a presidential election. I’m administering the full election, programming the ballot, ballot inventory, ordering ballots. I have to try to determine how many ballots I’m going to put at each precinct polling station, so I have a lot of data on what we can expect at different locations,” said Showalter.
After managing and overseeing 40 elections for Black Hawk County, Showalter takes pride in her management of resident’s ballots. “Every single ballot that comes through our office is accounted for,” said Showalter. “I know down to the ballot how many should be opened, counted through the machine and processed, and I’m proud to say that after 40 elections I’ve never been off, not one. That might not seem very impressive, but imagine if it was your ballot that wasn’t accounted for! Keeping track of our ballots is something we take pride in.”
During her tenure as elections manager, Showalter has seen legislative and societal changes to the ballot that affect Black Hawk County residents. For instance, the way the parties are listed on the ballot has changed over her eight years as elections manager. “We used to rotate who was first, and every county was different,” said Showalter. “Now, the Secretary of State will tell us who’s turn it is to go first.” There’s also now verbiage on the ballot that explains the president and vice president will be elected as a team. Showalter went on to explain how important it is to flip the ballot over when people vote, as important voting happens on the back as well. “I could confidently say that probably about 20% of voters leave the back of the ballot blank,” said Showalter. This year, on the back of the ballot is a constitutional amendment question. Iowans are asked to affirm whether or not Iowa could amend its constitution to allow 17 year olds who will be 18 by election day to vote in primary elections. “In terms of a sports analogy, the primaries are like the playoffs,” Showalter said. “That’s when parties select their candidates for the general election. You can’t get to the general election without the primaries.” Part of this same constitutional amendment question, the Iowa legislature wants to add the word “only” when referring to citizens who can vote. The amendment question will read, “Provides for only U.S. citizens aged 18 or older and meeting state and county residency requirements to vote in all elections. Further provides that 17-year-olds who will be 18 years old by the General Election are eligible to vote in the primary election, subject to the same citizenship and residency requirements.”
Showalter’s name will also appear on the ballot this election cycle, as she is running for the seat of Black Hawk County Auditor in an uncontested race. Current county auditor Grant Veeder will retire at the end of his term, and asked Showalter to run for the seat. “It did take me a good six months to decide whether or not I would run,” Showalter said. “But I’m excited to keep evaluating things on a larger scale and see what we can change to make things more efficient in the auditor’s office.”
