Iowa voters who go to their county auditor’s office to vote absentee would be required to provide ID according to language attached to the state budget that awaits Governor Kim Reynolds’ signature.

The legislation also stipulates that if a voter provides incomplete or incorrect information when requesting a mailed absentee ballot, the auditor’s office would be required to contact the voter first by telephone and email, then by physical mail, rather than using an existing database to fill in the blanks. This follows a bill that passed the legislature requiring the Iowa Secretary of State to seek approval from the Legislative Council before changing election procedures, as Secretary Paul Pate chose to mail all eligible voters absentee ballot requests for the primary election. It was a record-breaking turnout for Iowa, with 79.4% of ballots cast via absentee.

State House District 20 Representative Ray Sorensen (R) says this bill also addresses the closure of voting precincts, “I know in Pottawattamie County they usually have 12 voting precincts and they were limited to two, and a lot of people that relied on voting in person had to drive an hour to vote and that can’t happen. So we worked to fix that as well and there’s just we want everyone to be able to vote, but in that same vein we want to eliminate the fraud, too.”

According to the Pottawattamie County Auditor’s Office there were five polling locations open for the primary. In regards to voter fraud, there hasn’t been a criminal conviction in Iowa since 2017, according to The Heritage Foundation, a non-profit conservative research and educational institution. Listen to Monday’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program for the final interview with Sorensen of the 2020 legislative session on-air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.