By Sarah Watson, Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, Ill. The Tribune Content Agency
Marian Podesva walked up to the counter of the Scott County Auditor's office with her husband Vladimir Podesva and with her passport in hand Friday afternoon.
Marian Podesva received a notice in the mail from the auditor's office that she needed to come in and verify her citizenship. She had voted early but was among the more than 2,000 voters Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate flagged as potential noncitizens. Her ballot was automatically challenged, set aside by poll workers and marked as provisional.
Marian Podesva said she'd voted in previous elections without issue.
The Podesvas had already planned to go to the Auditor's Office Friday afternoon when Democratic Congressional candidate Christina Bohannan knocked on their door, Vladimir Podesva said.
She offered Marian Podesva a ride to the downtown Davenport building to provide documentation of her citizenship and make sure her vote counted, Vladimir Podesva said. They thanked her, but kept to their initial plan to go later in the day.
With Marian Podesva's passport, the process took only minutes for a copy to be made and filed, and her ballot to be "cured." The Podesvas took the elevator to the ground floor and went about their day.
Marian Podesva's ballot was one of at least 24 automatically challenged ballots in Scott County because of the Secretary of State's order, according to a Quad-City Times review of provisional ballot envelopes at the Auditor's Office. Several had already brought in the required documentation as of Friday afternoon. Their ballot envelopes were marked with a brightly colored sticky note with "CURED" written on them.
But several still had not brought in the documentation. Those whose ballots were challenged have until Tuesday at noon to bring in their documentation, such as a naturalization certificate or passport, and have their votes count.
Scott County Elections Manager James Martin said he would typically expect a few dozen provisional ballots for a presidential general election - other provisional ballots were of voters who did not have ID, had felonies, or hadn't surrendered their absentee ballot when they went to the polls to vote - but the citizenship-related challenges bumped that number up above what the auditor's office was expecting.
Scott County's absentee ballot and special voters precinct board will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday to decide whether about 50 provisional ballots meet the criteria to count.