Linn auditor, attorney disagree over double-voters

CEDAR RAPIDS - A handful of Linn County residents voted twice in recent elections, and the county's top elections official and its chief criminal prosecutor are at odds over what to do about it.

County Auditor Joel Miller wants to see the double voters - five since November 2010, by his count - charged with electoral misconduct. But County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said investigators can't prove the voters intended to cast two ballots, and Miller's Election Day staff could have prevented the problem.

“There was no intent to game the system,” Vander Sanden told county supervisors Tuesday. “There certainly was no intent to violate the law.”

No charges were filed because the state's electoral misconduct law applies only to “willful” fraud, Vander Sanden said, and investigations by the Sheriff's Office didn't establish intent.

“The Legislature made clear they did not intend that technical infractions would merit any type of legal infraction,” he said.

Miller said postelection records checks found four people voted absentee and then in person in the November 2010 general election and one in the March 6 local-option sales tax referendum.

The March double voter was Rick Pruisman, who said he was mailed a request for an absentee ballot request for the sales tax vote.

“I thought, well, I'll just go ahead and fill it out,” said Pruisman, 65, of Palo. “When the vote came around I forgot all about it and I went in and voted again.”

Pruisman said he was interviewed by a sheriff's deputy a month or two after the election. He said he wrote and signed a statement about the incident.

Pruisman doesn't recall which side in the sales-tax debate sent him the ballot request. He said he doesn't usually vote absentee.

Vander Sanden said the others who voted twice thought they'd returned their ballots too late to be counted, so they went to the polls to vote.

“They were under the impression that if they went to their precinct and their (absentee) ballot had been tabulated, they would not be given a second ballot,” he said. “Which I think is a reasonable expectation.”

Miller said the names of voters who have voted absentee are highlighted on the list at their polling place on Election Day, but poll workers don't always note them.

“I think it's an innocent mistake by the poll worker,” said Vander Sanden. “Certainly it's not a matter that should be prosecuted.”

Miller said he'll stress checking the elections register at training sessions for the 600 to 700 poll workers who will work November's general election.

Vander Sanden's predecessor Harold Denton charged 12 people with felony electoral misconduct in the November 2008 election because previous felony convictions cost them their right to vote. Ten pleaded guilty to reduced serious misdemeanor charges, one to a simple misdemeanor, and the 12th case remains open, according to court records.

Misdemeanor electoral misconduct is also defined as “willful” under the state code.

Miller said he's removed about 80 names from the county's list of registered voters after receiving information from Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who's investigating voter fraud in the state. Miller said Schultz forwarded a list of 60 deceased residents from the Social Security Administration, and a check of Department of Public Health records turned up another 20 names still on the voter rolls.