2009 Iowa Code
Title 2 - Elections and Official Duties
Subtitle 1 - Elections
CHAPTER 39A - ELECTION MISCONDUCT
39A.4 - ELECTION MISCONDUCT IN THE THIRD DEGREE.

        39A.4  ELECTION MISCONDUCT IN THE THIRD DEGREE.
         1.  A person commits the crime of election misconduct in the third
      degree if the person willfully commits any of the following acts:
         a.  Election day acts.  Any of the following on election day:
         (1)  Loitering, congregating, electioneering, posting signs,
      treating voters, or soliciting votes, during the receiving of the
      ballots, either on the premises of a polling place or within three
      hundred feet of an outside door of a building affording access to a
      room where the polls are held, or of an outside door of a building
      affording access to a hallway, corridor, stairway, or other means of
      reaching the room where the polls are held.  This subparagraph does
      not apply to the posting of signs on private property not a polling
      place, except that the placement of a sign that is more than ninety
      square inches in size on a motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer, or
      its attachment to a motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer parked on
      public property within three hundred feet of a polling place is
      prohibited.
         (2)  Interrupting, hindering, or opposing a voter while in or
      approaching the polling place for the purpose of voting.
         (3)  As a voter, submitting a false statement as to the voter's
      ability to mark a ballot.
         (4)  Interfering or attempting to interfere with a voter when the
      voter is inside the enclosed voting space, or when the voter is
      marking a ballot.
         (5)  Endeavoring to induce a voter to show how the voter marks or
      has marked a ballot.
         (6)  Marking, or causing in any manner to be marked, on a ballot,
      any character for the purpose of identifying such ballot.
         b.  Actions by election official.  As an election official:
         (1)  Serving as a member of a challenging committee or observer
      under section 49.104, subsection 2, 5, or 6, while serving as a
      precinct election official at the polls.
         (2)  Failing to perform duties prescribed by chapters 39 through
      53, or performing those duties in such a way as to hinder the object
      of the law.
         (3)  Disclosing the manner in which a person's ballot has been
      voted to anyone except as ordered by a court.
         (4)  Failing to carry out a duty with regard to access under
      chapter 22 to a public record that relates to an election or voter
      registration.
         (5)  Furnishing a voter with a ballot other than the proper ballot
      to be used at an election.
         (6)  Making or consenting to a false entry on the list of voters
      or poll books.
         (7)  Placing or permitting another election official to place
      anything other than a ballot into a ballot box as provided in section
      49.85, or permitting a person other than an election official to
      place anything into a ballot box.
         (8)  Taking or permitting to be taken out of a ballot box a ballot
      deposited in the ballot box, except in the manner prescribed by law.

         (9)  Destroying or altering a ballot that has been given to a
      voter.
         (10)  Permitting a person to vote in a manner prohibited by law.
         (11)  Refusing or rejecting the vote of a voter qualified to vote.

         (12)  Wrongfully acting or refusing to act for the purpose of
      avoiding an election, or of rendering invalid a ballot cast from a
      precinct or other voting district.
         (13)  Having been deputized to carry the poll books of an election
      to the place where they are to be canvassed, failing to deliver them
      to such place, safe, with seals unbroken, and within the time
      specified by law.
         c.  Miscellaneous offenses.
         (1)  As a party committee member or a primary election officer or
      public officer upon whom a duty is imposed by chapter 43 or by a
      statute applicable to chapter 43, neglecting to perform any such
      duty, or performing any such duty in such a way as to hinder the
      object of the statute, or by disclosing to anyone, except as may be
      ordered by a court, the manner in which a ballot may have been voted.

         (2)  As a person who is designated pursuant to section 43.4 to
      report the results of a precinct caucus as it relates to the
      selection and reporting of delegates selected as part of the
      presidential nominating process or who is designated pursuant to
      section 43.4 to tabulate and report the number of persons attending
      the caucus favoring each presidential candidate, failing to perform
      those duties, falsifying the information, or omitting information
      required to be reported under section 43.4.
         (3)  Making a false answer under chapter 43 relative to a person's
      qualifications and party affiliations.
         (4)  Paying, offering to pay, or receiving compensation for voter
      registration assistance in violation of section 48A.25.
         (5)  Using voter registration information in violation of section
      48A.39.
         (6)  As a candidate, making a promise to name or appoint another
      person to a position or to secure a position for another person in
      violation of section 49.120.
         (7)  Soliciting the use of influence from a candidate in violation
      of section 49.121.
         (8)  As a public official or employee, or a person acting under
      color of a public official or employee, knowingly requiring a public
      employee to act in connection with an absentee ballot in violation of
      section 53.7.
         (9)  As a person designated by the county commissioner of
      elections or by the voter casting an absentee ballot, failing to
      return an absentee ballot in violation of section 53.35A.
         (10)  As an incumbent officeholder of, or a candidate for, an
      office being voted for at the election in progress, serving as a
      member of a challenging committee or observer under section 49.104,
      subsection 2, 5, or 6, or section 53.23, subsection 4.
         (11)  Returning a voted absentee ballot, by mail or in person, to
      the commissioner's office and the person returning the ballot is not
      the voter, the voter's designee, or a special precinct election
      official designated pursuant to section 53.22, subsection 1.
         (12)  Making a false or untrue statement reporting that a voted
      absentee ballot was returned to the commissioner's office, by mail or
      in person, by a person other than the voter, the voter's designee, or
      a special precinct election official designated pursuant to section
      53.22, subsection 1.
         2.  Election misconduct in the third degree is a serious
      misdemeanor.  

         2002 Acts, ch 1071, §4; 2004 Acts, ch 1083, §1, 37; 2007 Acts, ch
      59, §20, 38; 2007 Acts, ch 215, §222
         Referred to in § 49.92