Iowa House modifying ‘election integrity’ bill; sending it back to Senate

DES MOINES - The Iowa House spent more than four hours Monday night debating a GOP-sponsored 'election integrity” bill it had passed earlier in the session.

The Senate modified House File 516 before approving it 26-21 and sending it back to the House.

Despite Democrats' claims that the 'voter suppression” bill would raise costs to county taxpayers, the House returned the favor by modifying the Senate amendments so it would have to go back that chamber before going to the governor.

HF 516 would require all voters at the polls to provide proof of eligibility as well as all absentee ballot requests to contain a personal voter identification number.

The House amendment being debated Monday would postpone the absentee ballot provision until Jan. 1, 2018, take the bill back to the original House language with regard to the Secretary of State issuing the initial voter identification cards to the 5 percent of Iowans who are voters but don't have a driver's license or non-operator ID and county auditors issuing subsequent cards. It also would postpone until Jan. 1, 2019, a provision that would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will be 18 by Election Day.

Among Democratic amendments were ones to require a voter ID be sent to every registered voter and another to require overnight delivery of those IDs, to expand the forms of ID accepted at the polls to include fishing licenses, public assistance cards, college IDs and credit cards, delay implementation until the state has had three consecutive fiscal years without a budget de-appropriation or spending cash reserves, upgrade the statewide voter registration system that now runs on Windows 95, restore 11 days of early voting cut in the Senate amendment and restore voting rights to felons who have served their sentence, parole or probation even if their fines, fees and restitution have not been paid.

They were defeated, largely along party lines, during debate that continued past 10 p.m.

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