Count the ballots, protect democracy

Let's make sure we got this right. Twenty-nine registered voters filled out absentee ballots on time and put them in the mail before Election Day. The post office marked them with a bar code that also revealed they were mailed before Election Day. This bar code can be read as proof to document these mailed ballots were indeed mailed before Election Day.

These ballots were received before the deadline for counting absentee ballots. Yet Republicans in the Iowa House do not want these votes counted. These are the ballots of 29 people who did what they were supposed to do. But Republicans want to penalize them, because of how the post office treated their ballots. This is not only disillusioning these 29 people, but every one of the people in that district as the will of the people is not being realized until these votes are counted.

Unfortunately, this is the same party that cries about voter fraud and the need for voter IDs. Their argument for needing less time for absentee voting and showing IDs to have legitimate elections is phony. This is just another example of Republicans attempting to diminish the vote of those people that might not vote for them.

It is sad these 29 people voting legitimately will not have their vote count. Is this truly how Republicans in the Iowa House believe democracy works? The right thing to do is count the votes and see what the election result really is.

Bret Nilles

Marion