DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced his proposed legislation to ensure the integrity of Iowa’s elections during a news conference at the State Capitol on Thursday. The proposal includes instituting electronic poll books at every Iowa precinct, requiring voter verification at the polling place, including signature verification, and requiring an ID number for voting by absentee ballot. Secretary Pate’s bill also establishes post-election audits to ensure public confidence with the electoral process.
“As I have stated many times, protecting the integrity of our elections is my top priority and this legislation will help us do that,” Secretary Pate said. “I want to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat. If you don’t have an ID, we will send you a new voter registration card to use at the polls. This bill streamlines the system to make checking in easier and quicker. It will reduce waiting times at the polls, ensure every eligible Iowan is able to cast a ballot, and ensures their ballot will count.”
Utilizing electronic poll books, voters will scan their state-issued ID or voter registration card upon checking in at their polling place.
Other items in the proposed legislation include:
- Creating a deadline for proxies to return collected voter registration forms and absentee ballots to the county auditor’s office.
- Setting the first date to request absentee ballots at 120 days prior to an election.
- Ensuring uniform, ongoing training for election staff and poll workers.
- Requiring that county auditors certify their compliance to all state and federal laws and report all suspected instances of election misconduct with the Secretary of State.
The general purpose of this proposal is to continue to ensure the fairness of the election system in Iowa, while increasing measures to enhance integrity.
“I am very proud of Iowa’s record of voter participation and I will continue to work to encourage and increase voter turnout,” Secretary Pate said. “We are one of the top states in the nation for voter registration and voter participation. This legislation will not have any negative impact on either of those. Instead, it will help instill confidence in our voting system and let every Iowan know that their vote counts.”
Senate State Government Chair Jeff Danielson of Cedar Falls, a Democrat, responded to the “election integrity” proposals by Pate.
“Less than two months after praising the integrity of elections in Iowa, Secretary of State Paul Pate has released a partisan proposal that will suppress voter turnout across Iowa. Voter ID and other changes outlined today will disenfranchise older Iowans, younger Iowans and people of color.
“Senate Democrats have worked with Republican legislators and county auditors over the years to increase voter participation and election integrity in our state. The proposals today from Secretary Pate turn back the clock by making election policy a partisan issue.
“As the first-in-the-nation caucus state, Iowa should have the best-in-the-nation election laws. Democrats believe that means Iowa’s elections must be the most accurate, secure and efficient in the country, without disenfranchising a single Iowan. Those values will guide our decisions to support or oppose proposed Republican changes to Iowa’s election laws.”
Voter fraud? Who is going to pay for all of this new equipment to suppress the vote without evidence of voter fraud? Looks like property taxes will go up substantially!
How about proving that you graduated from a school in Iowa (no GEDs), can read and write, and that you have live, and worked, in Iowa 5 years before any election? That’ll stop all of this voter fraud!!
The DEMORATS brought this unto themselves – as brought out in the recent Presidential election and the HUGE amount of CORRUPTION associated within their FILTHY PARTY. Their party will never recover for 20 years — IF THEN! That will be about the time hundreds of them should be getting out of prision.
ID is required for almost everything, why would anyone disagree with this request, also the presidents have always been selected by the one who holds the “crown”, the public is given the illusion the y are free everyone is a slave, the owners are the sorcerers, anyone who has a birth certificate is traded on the stock market daily the U.S. is a corporation not a sovereign country, the president is selected according to how much “royal bloodline he/she has”, all of the presidents except one have the same grandfather, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne, there is no Dem. Rep. party they are on the same bird with one on one wing the other on the other wing all controlled by the Jesuits, this philosophy is called, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Hegelian+dialectic this is how they deceive the masses/Goyim/cattle they control both sides, they are sitting in their yachts laughing at the U.S. citizens at some point ignorance of this is a choice, all they have to do is put info on T.V./newspapers/media and the masses believe whatever they have told, they have studied the brain for over 100 years, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavistock_Institute, foolish to believe they live, think like the Goyim/cattle nor do they care about the Goyim/cattle, the laws they create are for the masses not them, they break every law in the book their sins are stacked to Heaven, meanwhile the masses are happy being deceived.
They are also offering free identification cards, so this is not a hardship on anyone. I don’t see any problem with it at all, we also need a signature verification system in place on top of this system to prevent fraud via write in ballots, that is where the huge fraud occurs.
So back up your claim that there is huge voter fraud in write-in ballots that are cast. Please cite your source John
No. You have to prove that there isn’t voter fraud.
Not quite there little buckaroo.
John made the statement of huge voter fraud and it is incumbent upon him to provide the facts & sources to backup that comment.
Anny, when was the last time a write-in Candidate was a serious contender on a national level? Do you mean a “write-in ballot”?
Voter fraud was found in every state a recount that was done! Dems were so thrilled with the results that they canceled the rest. I guess there was too much egg on their face!
“fraud via write in ballots, that is where the huge fraud occurs” was the claim of John. Absolutely no evidence anywhere that this was the case. Perhaps you can cite your source.
Improving the integrity of the election process is a movement that will only gain ground and should in the face of examples like California who allows non citizens to get a drivers license and proposes to make anyone who gets a drivers license a registered voter automatically without any proof of citizenship.
Nothing wrong with this. You have to show a I.D. for everything from cashing a check, drivers license. Airline ticket, Bus ticket, Car loan, taxes, buying a gun and on and on. Only people that have something to hide are against it.
Where do the Republicans get these clowns for ?
First it was that idiot Matt Schultz back in 2011 that spent over 250,000 dollars of our money just to prove that there was very, very little voter fraud.
Now this numb-nuts Paul Pate who was quoted as saying “Voting is a privilege and not a fundamental right” even though the US Supreme Court has ruled otherwise:
“There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.” – Chief Justice John Roberts
Not to mention that when Pate was Iowa Secretary of State back in 1997, the Iowa State Ethics Commission had an investigation into then-Secretary of State Paul Pate for improperly using the Secretary of State’s official office, voter registration lists and computers to further his campaign for governor.
Pate was formally reprimanded and fined by the Commission for ethics violations.
Priceless, this guy Pate is worried about voter fraud with his history of abusing the office of Iowa Secretary of State.
I see nothing wrong with going to the polls and having to prove who you are, and that you are a registered voter.