Des Moines, Iowa — After ten days, the revived 2020 Iowa Legislative Session has ended and the partisan debates waged in the closing hours are likely to continue through the fall campaign.
The legislature returned to Des Moines June 3rd after a two-month pause due to the pandemic. This weekend Republican lawmakers voted to cut the state’s budget for elections and force the state’s top election official to get permission from legislative leaders before sending out absentee ballot request forms to voters. That’s something Secretary of State Paul Pate did for the June Primary. Republicans also created new voter verification steps for casting an absentee ballot. If a ballot request form has the wrong voter ID number on it, a county auditor may not use voter registration data to correct it, but must contact the voter to confirm the person is a qualified voter. Also this weekend, Republican lawmakers sent the governor a bill creating a 24-hour waiting period for abortions.
A proposed constitutional amendment on felon voting rights that was a priority for Governor Kim Reynolds was tabled in the Iowa Senate.
