Conservative Iowa county votes to oust election denier as its election administrator

A conservative Iowa county ousted the Republican official in charge of administering its elections in a special election landslide on Tuesday night after social media posts surfaced in which Auditor David Whipple had spread election conspiracy theories.

The development stands out because Warren County, which is located just south of Des Moines, had once been competitive turf but voted for Donald Trump by a 57-41 margin in 2020. Nevertheless, Whipple, who'd been appointed to his post earlier this year, was defeated in a 67-33 drubbing by Democrat Kimberly Shields, whom he'd previously suspended from her job as deputy auditor.

Sheets had applied to be appointed to replace the previous auditor, Traci VanderLinden after she announced in May that she'd resign for personal reasons. But while VanderLinden, the last Democrat left in countywide office, recommended that the county's Board of Supervisors pick Sheets, the all-GOP body instead unanimously went for Whipple, a construction professional with no government experience. One of the three supervisors, admitting that she was friends with Whipple and his wife, acknowledged that it "look[ed] weird" to choose him, but she argued he was a "detail-oriented person, especially in elections."