Iowa House votes to tighten election rules

DES MOINES - With passage of a GOP-backed 'election integrity” bill, the issue of whether such a measure is needed is in the hands of Iowans, the Democratic leader in the House said Thursday.

As expected, the House approved House File 516 that would make several changes to state election administration, including voter registration, absentee voting, eliminating straight-ticket voting, conducting postelection audits and requiring voters to present an ID to vote.

In voting to make Iowa the 35th state to adopt similar election rules, State Government Committee Chairman Rep. Ken Rizer, R-Cedar Rapids, said passage of the bill 'will improve voter satisfaction, confidence and security while ensuring access.”

House Minority Leader Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, was not pleased with either the outcome or being 'gagged” by the GOP majority despite nearly 12 hours of debate. Republicans approved a 'time certain,” meaning the House set a time for a vote before all amendments were debated.

'I think of it as being gagged,” Smith said after the 58-41 party-line vote, following a debate that ran from about 3 p.m. to midnight Wednesday and resumed Thursday morning. 'In my memory, this is the first time that twice time certain has been placed in a legislative session. Once again, it's too bad the Republicans don't want the people of Iowa to know these issues.”

The Senate has a companion bill that is eligible for debate in that chamber, or could take up HF 516. Either way, Smith said, the outcome is likely to be the same.

'So I think now this is in the hands of the people of Iowa,” he said. 'They will now see the implications of this legislation. They will determine that at the ballot box and with possible judicial remedy.”

A legal challenge would be unnecessary and unfortunate, Rizer said. HF 516 was crafted with the benefit of having seen voter ID laws in 34 other states and previous litigation to pass constitutional muster.

If Democrats and their allies 'want to waste Iowa taxpayer money to defend a constitutional bill that 69 percent of Iowans support, then that's on you,” he said.

In general, Democrats argued that like other GOP priorities this year, HF 516 was 'more political dogma” than a solution to a real problem.

Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, argued in an amendment that was debated nearly two hours that a voter impersonation fraud study should be done to determine if there is a problem.

Democrats cited GOP Secretary of State Paul Pate's comments in October that Iowa has one of the best records nationally for its election operations. The Election Integrity Project, a project of universities and political science groups in the United States and Australia, rated Iowa second only to Vermont in election conduct.

In 2016, 1.6 million Iowans - 79 percent of active, registered voters - cast ballots in the general election. There were 10 votes thought to be irregular.

Most of the cases were human error, not voter fraud. Those irregular votes included a felon whose voting rights had not been restored and a person who voted twice.

Despite the absence of evidence of widespread voter fraud, Rizer and Pate say there is a perception of voter fraud.

That confused Rep. Phyllis Thede, D-Bettendorf, who pointed out that Republicans have won control of the Iowa House, Senate and governor's office.

'Where's there fraud?” she asked. 'Hello. You won everything. How do you say this is fraud when you won everything from the top down to the local?”

What confused Rizer was how Democrats' attitudes have changed since they approved a photo ID for election-day registrations. Fifteen members of the current House Democratic caucus voted for that bill in 2007 without objecting that it was discriminatory or suppressed the vote, he said.

That made their opposition to HF 516, which is not a photo ID requirement, 'the height of hypocrisy,” Rizer said in his closing comments.

He also rejected Democratic assertions the bill was a poll tax, a return to Jim Crow laws, racist and representative of white privilege, disgusting and shameful and comparable to 'government identifiers” used by Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin.

'Disagree with me if you will, but to call those who simply disagree with you is itself racist and offensive,” Rizer said.

Rizer and other supporters repeatedly referred to an Iowa Poll that found that, in general, 69 percent of Iowans favor a voter ID.

Smith suggested the poll's wording guaranteed 'the way the question was answered would be the expected the outcome.” Smith also suggested Iowa lawmakers might want to follow the lead of their colleagues in Arkansas, who are putting a voter ID constitutional amendment on the ballot.

'I think there may be some benefit to doing that (because) it gives a chance for Iowans to be fully educated on the pros and cons of the action,” he said.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com