By Jennifer Jacobs
November 24--It's now official: victory has changed hands in an Iowa Senate race in the Waterloo area.
A recount confirmed that Democrat Jeff Danielson has beaten Republican Walt Rogers.
Danielson won by 22 votes, 16,103 to 16,081, the recount board reported this afternoon.
That
means there will be 32 Democrats and 18 Republicans in the Iowa Senate
next year. The current split is 30-20. It takes 26 members to claim the
majority.
On election night Nov. 4, Rogers pulled off an unexpected upset by
snagging 90 more votes than Danielson, an incumbent who is also one of
the leaders in the Senate.
But after election officials examined
provisional ballots, Danielson took the lead by a very narrow margin. A
canvass by the board of supervisors declared Danielson the winner by a
14-vote margin.
Rogers, a Cedar Falls resident who resigned from his job as a
church youth ministries director to campaign full time, then called for
the recount.
Three recount board members — one selected by the
Democratic candidate, one chosen by the Republican candidate, and one
selected by a judge — started counting ballots by hand Wednesday and
wrapped up today. They had assistance from the county election office.
Danielson, a Cedar Falls firefighter who lives in Waterloo, is the Senate president pro tem.