A bill that passed the Iowa House aims to change how caucuses are conducted in the state.

House District 47 Representative Carter Nordman (R-Panora) highlights three key changes in the legislation. He says Iowans would have to participate in person the night of the caucuses, instead of using a mail-in system such as the Iowa Democrats are pushing for.

“The reason for this is to protect Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status. As we know the New Hampshire Secretary of State said that if Iowa allows mail-in voting, essentially replacing the caucuses with a primary, that it will move to jump Iowa in the presidential primary calendar.” 

Nordman points out another change is having Iowans declare their political party 70 days prior to the caucuses, whereas currently Iowans can change their political party the night of the caucuses. Nordman notes the Republican lawmakers wanted to make this change to keep any “bad actors” from intentionally causing issues on caucus night. 

Nordman says the final change is removing Iowa from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) due to other states pulling out as well, making it a less effective way of monitoring voter rolls. He explains that Secretary of State Paul Pate is confident there are other resources he can use to monitor voter rolls.  

Nordman argues the counterpoint from Iowa Democratic lawmakers that Republicans are trying to suppress voters from caucusing.

“We have seen time and time again, after the laws that we have passed to ensure voter integrity here in the state, we continue to see record turnout of vote within our elections. So what we are doing is securing our election process, we are doing everything we can to ensure first-in-the-nation caucus status, but while also making sure that people in the state of Iowa have access to vote and to vote easy. Make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”   

This past February, the National Democratic Party voted to remove Iowa from its first-in-the-nation status, whereas the National Republican Party is continuing to keep Iowa first with its caucuses. The bill is now in the Senate for consideration.