Iowa election leader launches effort to boost veteran voting

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate wants to boost the number of veterans making their voices heard at the ballot box.

Pate announced a new initiative, Iowa Veterans for Voting, aiming to encourage voter registration and participation by veterans. His office distributed a tool kit describing best practices for working with former military service members to encourage their participation in the Nov. 5 election.

“Our veterans that have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedoms, many even paid the ultimate sacrifice," Pate said. "They had our backs, both on U.S. soil and abroad, now it's time to return the favor."

Southwest Iowa has the largest per capita concentration of veterans in the state, and Pate announced the new initiative during a news conference Tuesday at the Pottawattamie County Veterans Service Office in downtown Council Bluffs.

"After your time fighting for our freedom to vote, I think it's time that each of you have the confidence and the resources to go forth and exercise your right to vote, which you've already spent time fighting for and protecting," the Republican secretary of state said.

Veteran voters tend to favor GOP

Military veterans, on average, are more likely to be part of a coalition of voters backing the Republican Party. Like most interest groups, though, veterans aren't a monolithic voting bloc.

Pew Research Center found about 6 of every 10 registered voters who served in the military support former Republican President Donald Trump over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a survey concluding in early September.

Both parties have vice presidential hopefuls who are veterans.

Pate says focus not partisan

With the initiative coming four weeks out from Election Day, Pate says the aim isn't to serve the interest of one political party. Instead, he said it's the right time to talk about veterans voting because "people's minds are on the election."

"If I come back in July, that's not going to be something that they're really tuned into," Pate said. "The national media has got people's attention to this election going on."

Pate said his office has used social media to perform outreach to other groups.

"It's a full-court press, but it's in different areas at the same time," Pate said.

Pate cited outreach efforts to college students — traditionally viewed as more liberal-leaning voters — because they are also "a significant group of people who need to have information" so they can go to the polls. He said, in a response to a question about outreach efforts to disabled voters, his office has "invested a significant amount of time and effort into that community," including auditing polling sites for accessibility.

"Today is the day we are bringing the focus to veterans," Pate said. "I think that's a good start for that group, and we'll continue to work on the others as well."

Veterans as ‘sheepdogs’ protecting the flock

Karl Lettow, public information officer for the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, shared an analogy — popular in military and law enforcement circles — with the audience depicting the world as made up of sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.

"The majority of people are sheep," Lettow said. "That's not a bad thing. You're a happy, productive citizen who just wants go and live their life, raise their family and live their life in relative peace. But there are wolves."

The wolves, the analogy goes, prey upon the sheep. The sheepdog, meanwhile, wants many of the same things as the sheep but "their main purpose is to protect the flock."

"Odds are if you ever put on the uniform and ever raised your right hand to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, you've probably got a sheepdog in you," Lettow said.

Iowa had about 159,000 veterans as of 2022, or about 5 percent of the state population, according to census data.

"Let's make sure the people who fought for our right to vote actually get to practice it," Lettow said.

Absentee, curbside options available

Pate called attention to the availability of curbside voting for those unable to handle crowded areas, noting that "we know that not all disabilities necessarily are physically seen."

Voters can arrive at their polling site and call a number posted on a sign there to have a Democrat and a Republican come out and assist with casting a ballot. Polling sites also have accessible voting equipment for disabled voters who don't want someone else to help them.

The officials encouraged veterans to work with organizations they belong to and through their social networks — the in-person kind.

"The best source is your friends and neighbors — the people you trust, go to church with, that you're in a military group with, or whatever your connection might me. That is the best source of facts," Pate said.