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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 12 / 05-1047 Filed June 1, 2007 RAYMOND TAYLOR, KEITH COMLEY, and VIVIAN EDGERTON, Appellants, vs. CENTRAL CITY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee. ________________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Douglas S. Russell, Judge.

Appeal from a decision by the district court upholding the decision of the contest court to not count four questionable ballots in a special election. AFFIRMED.

Wallace L. Taylor of Cedar Rapids, for appellants.

Ivan T. Webber of Ahlers & Cooney, P.C., Des Moines, for appellee.

2 CADY, Justice. In this case we must primarily decide whether four contested ballots in a special election should be counted. The contest court and district court determined the ballots should not be counted. We affirm. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. The Central City Community School District proposed to refurbish its school building and construct a vocational education building. The plan required the issuance of general obligation bonds and a tax levy to pay for the improvements. On July 13, 2004, a special election was held to put the issue before the voters. Measure A asked the voters to

authorize the board of directors of the school district to contract for indebtedness and issue general obligation bonds for the improvements in an amount not to exceed $4,605,000. Measure B asked the voters to

authorize the school board to levy a tax to pay for the bonds. The official paper ballot asked the voters to mark their vote for each measure by filling in an oval target located to the immediate left of the words "Yes" and "No." The ballot's notice to voters, or instructions, specifically read: (Notice to Voters: For an affirmative vote on any question upon this ballot, mark the word "YES" like this . For a negative vote, make a similar mark in the box marked "NO") After a voter marked the paper ballot, it was mechanically scanned and counted. An affirmative vote of sixty percent was needed for each measure to pass. See Iowa Code

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