Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate talked extensively about election integrity on Friday at the Pottawattamie County Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. Pate noted the success of legislation passed in 2017 to require Voter ID in Iowa.
“The sad part is the Democrats still haven’t got the memo,” he said. “Because they keep trying to skirt the law. They fight us every step of the way.”
Pate discussed three Democrat county auditors who ignored a directive from his office warning against pre-populating absentee ballot request forms with the confidential Voter ID number.
“That’s like mailing out blank checks,” he said. “That’s not what we do here in our state.”
The legislative council voted unanimously to clarify not pre-populating the absentee ballot request forms.
“They go ahead and send them out anyway,” Pate said. “Surprise, surprise, they got a technical infraction from this office and then they got sued by the Iowa Republican Party and the Trump campaign. And we won. My compliments to the Republican Party of Iowa and the Trump campaign for making that happen.”
Pate noted that it all came at taxpayer expense.
“They mail these out, ignoring the law, and now that they had their wrist slapped, they’ve got to do it again,” he said. “The auditor up in Woodbury County who is going ‘ah, woe is me, I haven’t got the $30,000 to send another piece out.’ And the Republican supervisors up there said, ‘tough, figure it out.’ And the Linn County Auditor is trying to do the same thing.”
Pate said it will be in court in Johnson County this week and predicted a third victory.
“We’ve got to send a message – Voter ID is real,” Pate said. “And I can’t say enough about that. We have great elections in this state. They’re clean and they’re honest. But just like anything else we cherish, we’re going to protect it.”
Pate said statewide request forms will go out this weekend in the mail. He noted that Iowa tracks absentee ballot requests. Voters can track online when a ballot is sent to them and when it makes it back to the Auditor’s office.
“We’re going to make sure your vote gets counted this fall,” he said.
Pate predicted Pottawattamie County would provide President Donald Trump, Sen. Joni Ernst and David Young the edge necessary to win.
“(They) can’t win unless we win big, and I mean big, in Pottawattamie County,” Pate said.
