Iowa’s top elections official discusses mysterious package delivered to his office

JOHNSTON — No state worker was endangered when a suspicious package was delivered to the office of Iowa’s top elections official early this week, and nothing has disrupted the office’s preparations for the Nov. 5 general election, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said Friday.

Iowa was one of at least 15 states that received the suspicious packages early this week, according to national news reports. The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the origins of the packages, which were delivered to state elections offices.

The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office received a package on Monday. The office was evacuated and local authorities contacted.

Pate on Friday, during the taping for this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS, said no state worker was ever in danger and that the office executed a safety plan in place for such scenarios.

“When this happened, we were prepared for it,” Pate said. “We quickly reached out to the public safety folks, the Highway Patrol in our case, and brought in the hazmat teams to deal with the mailing that was sent in.”

Given how many states received similar packages, Pate believes that whoever sent them was looking for attention.

“It was very disappointing that someone is acting out like this and trying to disrupt our elections process,” Pate said. “The sad part is it sends a message sometimes, an unfortunate one, to our own employees, the people who run the elections that they have to, in addition to doing their professional job, they have to do these safety measures. But we're stepping into it.

“I think it was someone trying to get attention, quite frankly. … And I’m not going to give it to them. We’re going to keep business as usual and keep the elections on track.”

Bissell: Be aware of deadline when mailing ballots

The leader of the state association of county auditors said she is cautioning Iowans who want to vote by mail about the tight window for mailing in absentee ballots.

Becky Bissell, president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, said she is concerned about receiving mailed ballots in time to be counted, given the short window and issues with mail delivery.

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This will be the first presidential election under the new Iowa elections law, which compresses the time frame for voting by mail.

Under the new law, passed by statehouse Republicans in 2021, county auditors cannot mail absentee ballots to voters who have requested them until 20 days before the election, or Oct. 16 this year.

Under the new law, mailed ballots must be received by a voter’s county auditor’s office by Election Day. No ballots received after Election Day will be counted, regardless of when they are postmarked.

That leaves 20 days to complete the vote-by-mail process — and that includes three Sundays when there are no deliveries by the U.S. Postal Service, Bissell noted.

Bissell, who is the Adams County auditor, said it takes five to seven days for her office to receive a ballot from a voter in her rural area.

“If it takes seven days for the ballot to get to them, then they essentially have three days to get that ballot voted and back to us, and that’s a pretty small window,” Bissell said.

“So we just are really trying to educate anybody that is wanting their ballot by mail to make sure they get their absentee request form into the auditor’s office now and then we can get that mailed out on Oct. 16. And then as soon as you get it, get it voted and get it back to us.”

If voters fill out an absentee ballot and are worried that mailing it back to their county auditor will take too much time, those voters can deliver their ballot to their county auditor’s office or drop it in the county auditor’s drop box, in the counties that have one, Bissell said.

Pate: Doing all we can to ensure faith in election results

Pate said his office is doing everything in its power to assure Iowans that the results of the Nov. 5 election will be accurate and fairly counted.

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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s candidate for president, has again been sowing seeds of doubt about the upcoming election results. Trump refused to acknowledge the 2020 results, when he lost to Joe Biden. Despite Trump’s claims — without evidence — to the contrary, those results were upheld by every state and local elections official — including many Republicans — and no fraud was found in dozens of court cases.

Trump in 2016 or 2020 did not question Iowa’s election results — most likely because he won the state comfortably both times. However, a recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed Trump with just a 4-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.

Pate was asked if the 2024 presidential election results in Iowa are closer, or if Harris pulls off an upset and beats Trump in the state, whether he is confident all Iowans will believe the election results.

“We do our best to give them that assurance,” Pate said. “It’s like a sports team. You root for your team. You believe they’re the best when they go out on the field to compete. And should they not win, you might be disappointed, but you have to get over it because there’s another game later. But there are those who are going to go, ‘No, I’m going to claim something else might have happened.’

“We’re spending a lot of time right now just educating the public as to what we do in Iowa so we have that transparency so they know. We’ve got the voter ID (requirement), we have postelection audits, we have paper ballots, we have poll workers who are your friends and neighbors.

“That is a pretty serious arsenal to give you the kind of voter integrity to say you should know the results on the procedure side is on the up and up.”

When to watch ‘Iowa Press’

“Iowa Press” airs on Iowa PBS at 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday and at 8:30 a.m. on PBS World. It can be viewed any time at iowapbs.org/iowa press.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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