I’m not really into politics, but I’m concerned about the lack of trust in our election system. I know that many other Iowans agree with me when I say that our elections should be fair and transparent – worthy of every Iowan’s trust.
While working with a volunteer group, I was surprised at how much pushback we get from our elected officials when we request certain reports. Our FOIA requests for reports from Unisyn, ES&S and Dominion machines are being denied by most county auditors – except for one – and there seems to be a misunderstanding.
The misunderstanding comes from the email sent by Secretary of State Pate to all county auditors. He gave them Iowa Statutes to quote while denying our type of request. However, the Statutes don’t pertain to what we’re asking for. Either they are not understanding what we need or we’re not wording it right. We’re trying to resubmit requests or appeals as quickly as possible, but the deadline is here. It feels like a game that we’re not exactly winning.
We recently learned that six Iowa counties had more than 100% of voting-age adults registered to vote (Freemont, Lyon, Dickinson, Mills, Guthrie and Scott Counties), based on 2020 census results. We also have found many voters who have moved or died, but are still on the voter rolls. Don’t we pay for something called ERIC to keep voter rolls clean? Why isn’t ERIC doing its job? How much does it cost us? Maybe some Iowans should be in charge of our voter rolls, just a suggestion.
The Iowa Canvassing group of folks are trying to help by working hard in their spare time to find the glitch in the system. We want to fix it and move forward with fair and transparent elections, but we’re about to lose our chance.
After this Saturday, September 3, it will be legal to destroy all records pertaining to the 2020 election. We may never get the reports, so we’ll never be able to match up the numbers and see if there was a problem during the 2020 election.
It doesn’t seem right. We’re ordinary citizens trying to figure out why people don’t trust the system and find ways to fix it. We’re getting blanket denials and the deadline is looming. This doesn’t seem fair or transparent.
Please help us get our message through to Governor Reynolds that we need her help preserving the 2020 records, at least until we’ve had time to appeal these denied FOIA requests. We have called and written but, as far as I know, nothing has been done to-date.
Maybe if enough of us little people speak up, someone who can help will eventually hear us.
Thank you,
Stefanie Chrisman
Center Point, Iowa
