Poll of the Day - Double-Voting

Maybe you saw this morning's story on the disagreement between Linn County Auditor Joel Miller and County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden over what to do about five folks who double-voted in elections since 2010. Basically, they mailed in an absentee ballot and then showed up at the polls to vote. That's a no-no under Iowa law.

Miller wants them prosecuted. But Vander Sanden says he can't prove they did it on purpose, a.k.a. criminal intent.

It does sound like these were mistakes. Voters who vote absentee get marked with yellow highlighter in the great book of voters checked at each precinct. If a poll worker misses the highlighting, a double vote is born. I guess I can see why the county attorney doesn't want to turn these snafus into criminal cases.

That said, it seems like anyone who did double-vote on purpose would plead "honest mistake" if caught., so declining to prosecute anyone based on that excuse would seem to make the law useless. Unless someone bragged to others about voting twice or planning to, it would be tough to prove willfulness.

I guess the best news in all this is that getting caught is pretty much a certainty. And these folks were caught without major changes in procedures or new restrictions handed down from on high.

What do you think, prosecute or let it go? And, please, vote just once.

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