With the new election law recently signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, there might be some confusion as to some of the new regulations.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says some of the changes include reducing the number of early voting days to 21, closing polls at 8pm, designating certain individuals to drop off an absentee ballot and not allowing mailed in ballots after Election Day, with certain exceptions. Green explains his concerns with those exceptions.

“Part of me scratches my head at some of these exemptions on exactly what that looks like. This bill was intended to be a sure count on the end of Election Day that we have a firm number, but yet with these exceptions that’s not necessarily going to be the case.”

Green says another change is not allowing county auditors to mail out absentee ballot requests, unless an individual asks for it. He notes the change was in response to an issue that happened in Iowa this last election.

“Auditors were sending out voter request forms with their voter ID filled, with all the information put into where all they needed to do was to put in a signature. This was in direct violation of state law. We were able to kind of nip that in the bud in time for the election, but it was just really sad that we had to do that.”      

Green hopes the new law will help reduce costs for counties and secure the election process even more than there already is in place.