It’s easy to vote. Make it harder to cheat

Paul Pate, the Iowa Secretary of State has said that it should easy to vote and hard to cheat. Because of the pandemic, many locations made it easier to vote. Unfortunately, they also made it easier to cheat. There are certainly disagreements about the amount of voter fraud that took place, and there probably was not enough to change the outcome of the presidential election. However, there have been some races that have been extremely close, such as the Iowa second congressional district, and even a small amount of voter fraud could have large repercussions.

I believe that every honest citizen would agree with Secretary Pate's statement. In future elections, we should continue some of the practices that made it easier to vote, such as allowing voting early in person over a several week period. We should also, however, implement some practices that would make it harder to cheat. Cities and states should make greater efforts to clean up their voter rolls and remove deceased people. Absentee ballots should only be sent to individuals who request them, and they should not require postage to return. Nobody but a relative or caregiver should be allowed to turn in a ballot for a voter who is unable to vote in person. Finally, the counting process should be not only closely observed by members of both parties, but also recorded on video. If there are subsequent claims of voter fraud, the video can be reviewed, and the claim quickly dismissed or confirmed.

Darren Davenport

Cedar Rapids