Voters in Dallas County are encouraged to learn about the new voter identification laws at the upcoming Voter Ready Round Table Discussion.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate will join Dallas County Auditor Julia Helm for the session, which will be held Thursday, May 17th. The event will not be a forum or debate for the law, it will instead be a discussion so people can better understand how to handle the new procedures. Pate believes there’s been a lot of confusion regarding the law, but promises it’s not too hard to understand if people sit down to learn about it. Helm says one of the misconceptions about the new law is that people will not be able to vote if they don’t provide the proper identification, which she assures is not the case.

“They won’t be turned away. We never tell a voter ‘No.’ If you’re 18-years-old, you’re a U.S. citizen, you’re a registered voter, you’ve come to the polls, you show your ID, we have those drivers license scanners, we’ll scan you through. If you forgot your ID at home, it’s totally fine, there’s just an additional oath that we’ll print out with a declaration of eligibility slip that you will sign. You won’t be turned away, and even in ‘19 when the law goes into full effect, you would still be able to vote, it would just be a provisional ballot.”

The Voter Ready Round Table will be at 3 p.m. in the Dallas County Board of Supervisors meeting room in downtown Adel. It should last around one hour. To learn more about the new voting laws, listen to this past Wednesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.