An apology to Iowa Republicans

I have to apologize to my Republican friends here in Iowa who’ve been complaining over the last seven years about voter fraud. Based on a belief in widespread voter fraud (mistaken, in my opinion,) Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican legislators passed laws that added a voter ID requirement and shortened the early voting period from 40 days to 29, and then in 2021, to 20 days, making it difficult for Iowa voters to return their absentee ballots in time to be counted.

Yes, I have to apologize. We’ve recently learned of alleged voter fraud in Iowa’s Woodbury County. The wife of a newly elected Republican county supervisor has been charged with 52 counts of voter fraud in her husband’s unsuccessful race to earn the Republican nomination for U.S. House in District 4 in June 2020 and then in his successful race to become Woodbury County supervisor in November 2020. According to the indictment, she was operating in Sioux City’s Vietnamese community, filling out “dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information,” and delivering absentee ballots for people, often without the knowledge of those whose names were used.

Now that we’ve rooted out voter fraud in Iowa, maybe our legislators can rethink the array of restrictions that have made it harder for law-abiding citizens to cast their votes.

David Duer

Iowa City

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