Official focusing on disenfranchising voters

Shouldn't our Secretary of State, Matt Schultz, and his staff be devoting their time and taxpayer dollars to increasing Iowa's voter rolls, thus enfranchising and motivating more citizens to vote? It seems from the July 16 story, “Schultz set on proving voter fraud in Iowa,” that they are doing the exact opposite.

Our state's top elections official is following the nationwide Republican push to make voting less convenient and not fully accessible to all Americans. He is trying to produce evidence to support the idea that voter fraud is a problem. This puts the cart firmly before the horse.

Voter ID laws disproportionately target minorities, the poor, the young and the elderly. Schultz is quoted as saying Iowa election outcomes are getting “closer and closer.” The number and type of voters disenfranchised by his desired voter ID law could easily change the outcome of an election to favor his party. The handful of illegitimate votes his office has uncovered in its search for a problem to fit his solution would have little or no effect on any election.

Schultz is chasing a nonexistent problem in search of an ideological solution. Voter suppression is being pursued in more than 30 states. Little or no voter fraud has been uncovered anywhere in our country. It seems our secretary of state's “fix” is tampering with one of our basic rights - the right to vote.

Virginia Meyer

Lone Tree