Des Moines, Iowa (RI) — The legislature has sent the governor a bill that will no longer give someone registering to vote on Election Day the option of having a relative, neighbor or friend confirm their identity.
Representative Austin Harris, a Republican from Moulton, says West Virginia is the only other state that with a voter ID law that allows this option.
That voter is then required to go to the county auditor’s office and show an ID in order for the provisional ballot to be counted.
Representative Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City, says most of the 37 Johnson County residents who had someone vouch for them in the 2024 General Election were elderly people who didn’t have a driver’s license or couldn’t find it.
The bill also puts county auditors in charge of handling the nominating petitions that qualify candidates for city and school board elections.
Representative Harris says that’s an important change.
Because the clerks and secretaries missed the deadline, the names of those candidates were not printed on November’s ballots, even though the candidates had collected enough petition signatures.
KIWA Staff Photo
