Letter to the editor: Reader says to fund safe, secure elections

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To the editor:

The safety of our elections is of the utmost importance to our democracy in America.

Technology becomes more and more advanced every day, and bad actors, foreign and domestic, are becoming more sophisticated in being able to use technology to disrupt our elections. We need to be prepared to secure our elections and handle disruptions when and if they occur.

Congress has recently been considering allocating $75 million to keep our elections secure, with the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously recommending that figure for the fiscal year 2025 package.

In 2020, under the Trump administration, $400 million was allocated, and since then that number has dropped. Now, more than ever, is the time to support our election system. It’s important to provide our election officials with the support they need to keep our elections honest and secure.

This funding will help our election officials carry out secure elections. We must also support single-day voting, requiring identification to vote, paper ballots filled out in person at the polling location and other measures.

If we can achieve policies like these and provide protection and reliability to our election system, we can ensure a secure democracy.

I would urge Iowa’s Congressional delegation to step up to the task when it comes time to supporting this important funding and continue to strengthen our electoral system through common sense election practices.

Chris Janda
Des Moines

1 COMMENT

  1. They might as well allocate a billion dollars. The GOP will gladly take that money, too. They can use it to do more things like this:

    –4,776,706 voters were wrongly purged from voter rolls according to U.S. Elections Assistance Commission data.
    –By August 2024, for the first time since 1946, self-proclaimed “vigilante” voter-fraud hunters challenged the rights of 317,886 voters. The NAACP of Georgia estimates that by Election Day, the challenges exceeded 200,000 in Georgia alone.
    –No fewer than 2,121,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified for minor clerical errors (e.g. postage due).
    –At least 585,000 ballots cast in-precinct were also disqualified.
    –1,216,000 “provisional” ballots were rejected, not counted.
    –3.24 million new registrations were rejected or not entered on the rolls in time to vote.

    While they’re at it, bring up a bill that all casinos must give you a do-over whenever you lose a hand at blackjack. That has more of a chance to pass than anything that promotes free and fair elections.

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