Democrats walk out of meeting on Iowa elections bill

DES MOINES — A fiery exchange prompted Iowa House Democrats to walk out Tuesday of a House subcommittee meeting on a bill to make changes to the state’s election procedures and limit eligibility challenges for federal candidates — including to Donald Trump.

Republicans advanced House Study Bill 697 out of the subcommittee, saying it “continues to make Iowa a place of election integrity.”

Democratic Rep. Amy Nielsen of North Liberty walked out after questioning Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who led the subcommittee meeting. After a heated exchange between the two, Nielsen told Kaufmann to “stop interrupting me.”

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“This is my subcommittee and I’ll refer to whoever I want to refer to whenever I want to refer to them,” Kaufmann said. “You don’t run this meeting, Representative Nielsen.”

Shortly after, Nielsen walked out, followed by Rep. Adam Zabner of Iowa City, the other Democrat on the five-member panel.

"I think it was made pretty clear that what I had to say was not well received, did not want to be heard," Nielsen said after the meeting. "If I can't be heard, why am I here?"

Kaufmann said the House State Government Committee will consider the bill Wednesday ahead of a key legislative deadline for bills to remain active in the session. It would do the following:

"They are treating this bill very unseriously, and we're going to continue as we do," Kaufmann said after the meeting of the Democrats' walkout. "And their actions speak for themselves. If they can't stay in the room like an adult, and have a conversation, then good riddance."

A companion bill, Senate Study Bill 3161, was passed Monday out of a Senate subcommittee by Republican Sens. Jason Schultz of Schleswig and Dawn Driscoll of Williamsburg. Democratic Sen. Janice Weiner of Iowa City did not vote to advance the bill.

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Limiting challenges

The limit on eligibility challenges would make it impossible for individuals to lodge challenges to former President Trump’s place on the presidential election ballot on the grounds that he incited an insurrection in violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, as groups in other states have done.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide on an appeal from Colorado that would knock off the ballot there if upheld.

Zabner said the section was designed to protect Trump and noted during the meeting that Kaufmann was a senior adviser for Trump’s Iowa caucus campaign this year.

“This is a bill that does a disservice to everyday Iowans and serves one man, Donald Trump,” Zabner said. “And I don't think there's a clearer contrast between Iowa House Democrats and Iowa House Republicans than this bill. We're putting people over politics. They're putting one candidate as their legislative priority.”

Kaufmann said the bill would affect all candidates equally and had no connection to his work on the Trump campaign.

“It is not our job to decide who’s on the ballot, it is the voters’ job,” he said. “And it’s arrogant, frankly, for us to think that we should overrule what they choose to do, whether that’s a D, an R, a Libertarian, a Green Party, or anyone else, for that matter.”

Absentee ballot changes

The bill would move the deadline for county auditors to receive absentee ballots to the close of business one day before the election. Currently, ballots can be received until the end of the day on Election Day. Auditors would be able to begin mailing out absentee ballots two days earlier to compensate for the earlier deadline.

The bill requires that the voter ID number — either the voter’s driver’s license number or the number on a state-provided Voter ID card — that is placed on the absentee ballot affidavit match the number on file for the voter. It would remove a county auditor’s ability to disqualify a ballot if it appears the signature on the ballot does not match the signature on file.

The bill also would require that auditors use at least three — and sometimes four — envelopes for different documents when mailing out absentee ballots.

Adams County Auditor Rebecca Bissell, the chair of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, said the group was opposed to the bill and concerned about a wide range of the proposed changes.

She said the auditors already have purchased envelopes for the 2024 elections, and the new rule would require them to incur major costs by purchasing all new envelopes. She also said ballot drop boxes save counties money by lowering their postage costs for ballots that would otherwise be returned by mail.

"Timelines will not allow us to reissue ballots by mail, and will only harm voters who are not able to go to the polls on election day," she said.

Voter roll maintenance

The bill would authorize a pilot program for a third party to maintain Iowa’s voter rolls.

Until last year, Iowa was enrolled in the Electronic Registration Information Center, a non-partisan multistate organization that maintains voter rolls. Several GOP-led states left the group last year because of concerns over the group’s privacy and registration activities, as well as conspiracy theories fueled by far-right media.

Under the bill, the state would use the third-party vendor to verify the state’s voter database in early 2025. After that, the state would evaluate the new process and could continue with the new vendor.

Ranked-choice voting

The bill would also ban ranked choice voting in Iowa.

Ranked-choice voting is a process by which voters rank multiple candidates for a single office based on their preference. If a candidate does not receive more than 50 percent on the first round of voting, the least popular candidate is eliminated and his or her voters are reassigned to their second choice. The process continues until someone reaches 50 percent of the votes.

The method is used in some local elections across the country, and in some statewide elections in Maine and Alaska.