TrustVoting Atlas

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 1, paragraph “b”, “e”, or “f”, while serving as a precinct election official at the polls.
(2) Disclosing the manner in which a person’s ballot has been voted to anyone except as
ordered by a court.
(3) 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.
(4) Furnishing a voter with a ballot other than the proper ballot to be used at an election.
(5) Making or consenting to a false entry on the list of voters or poll books.
(6) 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.
(7) 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.
(8) Destroying or altering a ballot that has been given to a voter.
(9) Permitting a person to vote in a manner prohibited by law.
(10) Refusing or rejecting the vote of a voter qualified to vote.
(11) 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.
(12) 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.
(13) Interferes with a person permitted at a polling place pursuant to section 49.104.
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.
Tue Dec 09 22:31:19 2025
Iowa Code 2026, Chapter 39A (25, 2)
§39A.4, ELECTION MISCONDUCT
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(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) 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.
(6) Soliciting the use of influence from a candidate in violation of section 49.121.
(7) 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.
(8) 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.
(9) 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 1, paragraph “b”, “e”, or “f”, or section 53.23, subsection 4.
(10) Returning a voted absentee ballot by mail, to a ballot drop box, or in person, to the
commissioner’s office and the person returning the ballot is a person prohibited to collect
and deliver a completed ballot pursuant to section 53.33.
(11) Making a false or untrue statement reporting that a voted absentee ballot was
returned to the commissioner’s office, by mail or in person, or to a ballot drop box, by a
person prohibited to collect and deliver a completed ballot pursuant to section 53.33.
2. Election misconduct in the third degree is a serious misdemeanor.
215, §222; 2019 Acts, ch 148, §8, 33; 2021 Acts, ch 12, §5 – 8, 73; 2022 Acts, ch 1021, §180