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Actual Vote in Iowa

Access poll tapes after election night

Information current as of October 2026

This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Iowa for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.

Iowa doesn’t post poll tapes — and a 2021 law actually requires the tape to be sealed and carried away. The only public moment at the precinct is spoken: when the count is done, “one of the precinct election officials shall publicly announce the total number of votes received by each of the persons voted for” (Iowa Code § 50.11). The printout is signed, attached to the tally list, then placed “in a securely sealed envelope with the signatures of all board members… across the seal” and transported to the county (§ 50.14) — no copy stays behind. The public channel is online: the Secretary of State posts precinct-level results as counties report. You can also request the signed tally lists and printed results from your county auditor as public records afterward.

Your participation is powerful: you join a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results — an independent check on vote reporting, which is vulnerable to error and fraud. We haven’t published an Actual Vote analysis from Iowa yet, but see what a team achieved in the 2024 North Carolina primary. The process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public.

Poll closing time in Iowa: 8 p.m. Anyone still in line at closing time is entitled to vote, so the closing procedure — and the tape — can run later.

Get the app How Actual Vote works See an example analysis

This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Iowa as of October 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.

If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Iowa is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.

Your ways to participate in Iowa

See how the six ways to help compare →

  1. 1

    Record posted tapes at polling placesNot available in Iowa

    Nothing is posted at the polling place on election night in Iowa; tapes become available afterwards (use cases 5 and 6).

  2. 2

    Be there at the close or observe the countNot available in Iowa

    The public can’t watch the close in Iowa; tapes become available after election night (use cases 5 and 6).

  3. 3

    Record early-voting tapes

    Iowa counts absentee ballots, including early in-person votes, centrally on a special precinct board, which can’t release its tally until the count is complete on election day. Only board members, party challengers and a few designated observers may be in the room (Iowa Code § 53.23). Call your county elections office ahead of time and ask where and when the early-voting tapes will be printed, and whether you may observe and video-record them. If they don’t have a plan to show them, you can politely ask them to display the tapes.

    See a detailed example of recording early-voting tapes, based on Cobb County, Georgia.

  4. 4

    Become a poll worker or observer

    Working the polls or serving as an appointed observer puts you right at the source — the earliest point in the chain of custody, and the clearest view of the count and the tape.

    See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.

    Sign up to be a poll worker →

  5. 5

    Visit or book an appointment at your county elections office

    Election offices can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — a great way to cover a whole county on your own schedule.

    Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Iowa county elections office
    To: [your county] County elections office
    Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes

    Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.

    We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct results tapes (summary statements) from the [date] election — Election Day, absentee/by-mail, and early voting — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.

    Everything on these tapes is public records under the Iowa Open Records Act (Chapter 22, Iowa Code) (Iowa Code § 22.2), and already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]

    Offices are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier. See the full worked example for more.

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

  6. 6

    File a public-records request for poll-tape images

    Poll tapes are public records under the Iowa Open Records Act (Chapter 22, Iowa Code). You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — available in every state, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.

    Public-records request email — Iowa precinct results printouts
    To: [your county] Auditor's Office
    Re: Public records request — [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election] precinct results printouts, [your county] County

    Dear [County] County Auditor,

    Under the Iowa Open Records Act (Chapter 22, Iowa Code), Iowa Code § 22.2, I'm requesting copies of public election records — specifically the precinct-level results printouts (also called "tapes") and the signed tally lists produced by the county's ballot tabulators, meeting the following criteria:

    • From Iowa's [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election]
    • From all precincts in [your county] County
    • For each voting method that produced a results printout — Election Day (in-person precinct) and Absentee. I understand Iowa law requires the printout to be sealed into an envelope and transported to the county rather than posted or left at the precinct (Iowa Code § 50.14), so I'm requesting the county's copies after their return
    • The printouts/tally lists showing candidate-by-candidate vote totals — I don't need the zero or configuration tapes, though including them is fine
    • If for any combination above no ballots were cast (so no printout exists), simply omit it

    Digital scans (emailed or via a download link, in any common format such as .pdf or .jpg) would be ideal; physical copies for pickup or mail are also fine. These are public records, and the totals they show are already in the official published results. They'll be used for legitimate, non-partisan vote-reporting auditing with Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — you can see exactly how it works, and why it's non-partisan, at Start Here.

    If you must redact anything beyond precinct name, voting method, and results totals, please go ahead. If you deny any part of this request, please cite the specific exemption and let me know the appeal options under the law. Please also tell me of any fee in advance — I request a fee waiver, as this analysis is in the public interest, contributes to election transparency, and is not for any commercial purpose.

    Because our analysis is most useful before results are certified, I'd be grateful for the data within about a week if possible; if you expect a delay, just let me know when to expect it.

    Thank you for considering this request. — [name], [email/phone]

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

Example Actual Vote Recordings

We don’t have any recordings from Iowa yet — you could be the first! Here are some example poll tape videos by Actual Vote users in other states, all taken during scheduled visits to an elections office. America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. See this report from North Carolina in 2022 for an example.

Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.

How we know this — and how you can check it

This reflects America Counts’s primary-source review of Iowa’s election statutes and Secretary of State guidance, most recently updated in October 2026; the summary at the top of this page and the early-voting card link the provisions it relies on. Procedures can still vary locally, so the surest way to confirm what applies at your polling place or elections office is to call them directly. Found something different? Tell us and we’ll verify it and fix the page.

Find your county's election website

County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Search "[your county], Iowa elections" if a link 404s.

Ready to help?

Join the nationwide team independently double-checking how votes are reported — starting in Iowa.

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