Letter to the editor: Iowa Republicans dancing to Trump’s tune

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U.S President Donald Trump, left, embraced Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Jan. 16, 2020, at a rally at the Knapp Center on the Drake University campus.

To the editor:

The bill that the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature approved and the governor signed making changes in election laws in Iowa does not improve election security.

Let’s look at a few things this new election law will do:

  • reduce the time for early voting to 18 days from the 40 days allowed since 2017
  • prohibit county auditors from mailing absentee ballots until mid-October
  • stop county auditors from mailing absentee ballot request forms. Voters will have to download the blank form from the Internet. (Don’t have Internet or a printer? The legislature doesn’t care)
  • change the time when voters can first request an absentee ballot to late August, from the early July time now
  • require the county auditor to mark the voter’s name as “inactive” on the rolls if s/he does not vote in one general election, beginning the process of being kicked off the registered voter roll

So why did the Republican majority pass this bill?

Remember that in the most recent election, no one in Iowa, including Republican leadership, could find a single case of election fraud or polling-place problems.

Wouldn’t you think that Republicans would be jumping with joy that 76% of Iowans voted in the last election?

So just who are they jumping for?

The only person who maintains that there were problems in the 2020 election is Donald Trump — not the county auditors, not the Secretary of State, not the Iowa Supreme Court, not the U.S. Supreme Court.

Only Donald Trump.

Apparently, when Donald Trump says “jump,” the Iowa Republicans in the legislature and governor’s mansion just ask, “How high?”

That’s how we get a solution to an election problem that doesn’t exist here in Iowa. Of course, if the Republicans keep this up, they will create a problem.

It’s called voter suppression.

Judy Kading
Greenfield

1 COMMENT

  1. Spot on, Judy Kading. Your letter is excellent. It would be nice to have them more interested in Iowans than in following Trump’s lead, wouldn’t it?

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