1. A runoff election may be held only for positions unfilled because of failure of a sufficient number of candidates to receive a majority vote in the regular city election. When a council has chosen a runoff election in lieu of a primary, the county board of supervisors shall publicly canvass the tally lists of the vote cast in the regular city election, following the procedures prescribed in section 50.24. Candidates who do not receive a majority of the votes cast for an office, but who receive the highest number of votes cast for that office in the regular city election, to the extent of twice the number of unfilled positions, are candidates in the runoff election.

Terms Used In Iowa Code 376.9

  • Council: means the governing body of a city. See Iowa Code 362.2
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
 2. a. Runoff elections shall be held four weeks after the date of the regular city election and shall be conducted in the same manner as regular city elections, except that the county board of supervisors required to canvass the vote of the runoff election pursuant to section 50.24 shall meet to canvass the vote on the Thursday following the runoff election.

 b. For a city that is located in more than one county, the county board of supervisors conducting the canvass under paragraph “a” shall transmit abstracts for the offices and public measures of that city, along with individual tallies for each write-in candidate, to the city’s controlling commissioner under section 47.2 within twenty-four hours of completing the canvass. The county board of supervisors of the county of the controlling commissioner shall canvass the abstracts received pursuant to this subsection on the first Monday or the first Tuesday after the day of the runoff election and shall proceed as provided in section 50.24, subsection 4.
 3. Candidates in the runoff election who receive the highest number of votes cast for each office on the ballot are elected to the extent necessary to fill the positions open.