March 19, 2024

Iowa’s voting process is secure

The Newton Daily News article of Dec. 29 outlining Rep.Greg Heartsill’s 2017 legislative priorities promotes a misconception that the Iowa voting process is insecure. Iowa auditors have worked very hard with the Iowa Motor Vehicle Division to maintain very, very accurate records.

Information is recorded on drivers’ licenses or on state identification cards for those who do not have drivers’ licenses and has been found to be very precise. As a matter of fact, a few years ago, the then-Secretary of State Matt Schultz spent thousands of taxpayer dollars and months of time trying to track down illegal voters. After all that effort and expense, a total of about 25 cases were found, but almost all were cases of folks with mistaken information. Some who had been told at one time that they would be able to vote after they were released from prison still believed that to be true (the law changed, but they were not directly informed of the change). Local officials declined to press charges in most of these cases because the individuals acted on what they understood the law to be; the total charged was three to five, hardly enough to throw an election.

I do hope Rep. Heartsill will spend his valuable time working on problems that really exist and affect many, many Iowans, such as water pollution, world-class education, availability of mental health treatment and attracting well-paying jobs.

Margery Graves
Grinnell