Iowa is moving to block the Secretary of State from sending out unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to all registered voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Republicans in the Iowa State Senate passed legislation this week that would bar Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) from sending out mail-in ballot applications to registered voters who did not first request an application, according to the Des Moines Register:
After more than two hours of emotional debate Wednesday, Iowa Senate Republicans passed a wide-ranging election bill that would prohibit the secretary of state from mailing absentee ballot request forms without first receiving a request from a voter. [Emphasis added]
…
“(With the) secretary of state, we have no checks and balances,” Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport, said. “And I know today you like what he did. A future secretary of state, in the future, may do something you don’t like.” [Emphasis added]
The measure comes after Pate sent out mail-in ballot applications, unsolicited, to about two million registered voters in Iowa for the state’s June 2 primary. The result was that more than eight-in-ten voters in Iowa voted by absentee.
Recent data has not shown a compelling public health justification for mail-in voting. In Wisconsin’s April election, only 52 of more than 400,000 voters and poll workers were confirmed to have contracted the Chinese coronavirus. None of those cases were fatal. This equals an infection rate below two-hundredths of one percent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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