The Iowa Legislature approved a bill that requires voters to show their ID when requesting a ballot at the County Auditor’s Office, or fill out new information such as the Voter ID Number when applying for an absentee ballot. The bill also states if a voter provides incomplete or incorrect information when requesting a mailed absentee ballot, the county auditor’s office would be required to contact the voter first by telephone and email, then by physical mail, rather than using an existing voter registration database to fill in the blanks. State Senator Julian Garrett tells KNIA News he views it as election security.

“Our objective is to make sure the people that are entitled to vote can vote, but the people that aren’t entitled to vote, we want to prevent them from voting. That’s not right for the legitimate voter to have their vote diluted by someone who isn’t entitled to vote or someone who is voting in two states or whatever. I feel pretty good about that, and I think we are going to have a good turnout this November.”

Opponents of the bill say that this new measure will make it harder to vote, as approximately 80% of all votes in the June 2nd primary was through absentee ballots, and the County Auditor’s Office won’t be able to fill in missing information from existing voter records. For more information, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.