Bill brings needed clarity, improves system

On Feb 19, 2021

The Iowa Legislature is considering several bills that would change Iowa’s election laws. The arguments against these bills (or any election law change, it seems) is that the result will be widespread voter suppression and a fundamental threat to democracy. But these arguments have more heat than light. The truth is much simpler.

We are freshly off of a hotly contested election season. From the presidency down to local offices, Iowans voted in record numbers. They did so despite the challenges of a pandemic. Iowans should be proud of their participation in our democratic processes.

But that doesn’t mean there is no room for improvement. The last election season saw three Iowa county auditors decide that they didn’t like how the Legislature had crafted election rules. Despite being ordered not to by the secretary of state, they sent out prepopulated absentee ballot request forms that circumvented an election security measure and invited identity theft. Those auditors were taken to court, and every judge who heard the case came to the same conclusion: The auditors were wrong and should be ordered to not break the law. (Full disclosure: In my private capacity, I represented the plaintiffs that obtained the injunctions against the county auditors.)

The Iowa Legislature was clearly paying attention. Legislators recognized that the actions of these three auditors meant that the laws needed to be strengthened to make it absolutely clear that what they did was wrong. It shouldn’t take someone going to court to sue to prevent a county auditor from breaking the law.

County auditors have a very important job to do when they administer elections. All Iowans rightly expect that they will run elections in a neutral way and that voters in rural areas will receive the same access to the election process that voters in urban areas get. This is why the law needs to tighten up the discretion given to county auditors. The result will be one uniform election system for all Iowans. A single level playing field for every candidate and voter. That is plain common sense.

Back to absentee voting. Absentee voting comes with consequences. Voters who cast their ballots early, for example, are deprived of the information that comes out late in the election season. Candidates might still be having debates long after many voters have cast a ballot. The Legislature has to strike the appropriate balance between the value of access to absentee ballots and the value of an informed electorate.

These proposals are certainly not “voter suppression.” This is a term used by opponents of election law reforms. But it has no real accepted definition. Using the term is mere name calling and diminishes the seriousness of the debate about election laws. The U.S. Supreme Court and the Iowa Supreme Court have both held that the right to vote is the right to cast a ballot on Election Day. The ways in which the Legislature grants access to absentee ballots enhance the right to vote; they do not suppress it. The Legislature is free to make needed changes to absentee voting without harming the right of any Iowan to vote.

Iowans have a very good election system today. This legislation will make it much better.

Alan Ostergren is the president and chief counsel of the Kirkwood Institute, a nonprofit public-interest law firm. The Republican was Muscatine County attorney from 2011 to 2020.