Earlier this month, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced that he would be sending absentee ballot request forms by mail to every registered voter in Iowa for the June 2nd primary election.

The idea was to make voting easier and safer to do, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the idea has been met with some concern from members of the State Legislature. State Senator Jake Chapman, (R) District 10 who will run unopposed on the primary ballot, says he hasn’t had a chance to talk with Pate about this issue, but emphasizes he doesn’t agree with the logic. Chapman points out that many of the registered voters in Iowa won’t be voting in the primary election because they’re not registered as Democrats or Republicans, but the money will be spent to send them absentee requests regardless.

“I think it’s very presumptuous to suggest that that’s what we need to do right now. Look, we have absentee voting here in the State of Iowa (and) we have guidelines with it. I’m not sure that it’s productive to be sending out absentee ballot request forms to all registered voters. Frankly, the election process that we have requires initiative on the part of voters. It always has, and it hopefully always will. I’m not overly excited about the Secretary of State just unilaterally deciding to do that without consulting the legislative body, but we’ll see how that progresses.”

Absentee requests can be made from now until May 22nd, and the completed ballots can be mailed to your county auditor any time prior to June 1st. To hear more from Chapman on this and other legislative topics, click the link below to listen to the recent Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with him.

https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2020/04/20/lets-talk-dallas-county-4-20-2020-jake-chapman/