Iowa Democrats mad over comments on election process

Iowa’s top election official reacted angrily yesterday to the suggestion that Iowa election returns were in question in the same way Florida’s are. Karl Rove, George Bush’s chief political strategist, yesterday suggested several ballot boxes in republican counties in Iowa have not been counted yet. Secretary of State Chet Culver, Iowa’s Commissioner of Elections and an Al Gore backer, says Rove is wrong and trying to create doubt about Iowa’s election results to divert attention from the Florida situation.Culver says Iowa’s election process is clean, partly because a republican and a democrat sign-off on election returns in every Iowa precinct, and those watch-dogs make sure the vote tally’s right. Governor Tom Vilsack, who backed Al Gore, too, says he was angered by Rove’s comments. He says he wants Iowans to understand that “we have a clean election process.”Bush’s chief political strategist also said Iowa law required an automatic recount of Tuesday’s ballots. That’s wrong. It doesn’t. If the Bush camp wants a re-count, it must write a letter to each county auditor in Iowa and ask for one.