Des Moines, Iowa — The Republican-led Iowa legislature passed a second round of election law changes this week, including limits on who can take someone else’s absentee ballot to the county auditor’s office.
Senator Roby Smith, a Republican from Bettendorf, says there are all sorts of security provisions once an absentee ballot reaches a county auditor’s office, but without these changes, anyone can grab someone’s absentee ballot and claim they’ll deliver it.
Family members may deliver a relative’s absentee ballot and any registered voter in Iowa can help two blind or disabled voters deliver their absentee ballot to the county auditor’s office. Political parties, unions and campaigns cannot have paid representatives or volunteers collect absentee ballots. Senator Pam Jochum of Dubuque and all the Democrats present Wednesday opposed the bill.
Senator James Carlin, a Republican from Sioux City, says the Federal election law congress has proposed is designed to facilitate fraud and Iowa needs strong state rules.
Senator Tony Bisignano a Democrat from Des Moines, says Republicans are using former President Trump’s claims of a rigged election as their guide for this year’s election-related bills.
The election bill Republicans approved on the 2021 legislative session’s final day covers a wide range of issues. It stipulates 17-year-olds who’ve registered to vote because they’ll be 18 by Election Day are not to be removed when voters are cut from registration lists if they haven’t cast a ballot in the last General Election. That problem cropped up as a result of the election law passed earlier in the legislative session.
