Democrat State Sen. Claire Celsi said Republicans are bringing this “type of voter suppression legislation” forward in many states where they control the agenda.
“As is typical with voter suppression legislation, this bill doesn’t solve any potential issue that we are facing, but it served up a whole laundry list of items that aren’t problems in Iowa,” she said.
Celsi asked if the legislature really wants to “disconnect” Iowa’s voters from their county auditors.
“Do we really want to put up barriers to voting,” she asked.
The “big lie,” Celsi said, referring to the idea that massive voter fraud impacted the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election, has led to this legislation.
“The big lie was that Americans should not trust the election officials in charge of conducting our elections,” she said. “That you should not trust legislative bodies like ours to make fair laws and to enforce them. The ultimate goal was to confuse people and make them believe that the only legal outcome of the election was that Donald Trump and only Donald Trump could win the election.
“Instead of helping Iowans unwind the big lie and understand the truth, Republicans in Iowa have taken cookie-cutter election suppression legislation, foisted it on our voters, our districts and our state. All (this legislation) does is perpetuate the big lie that the election was not legitimate and that Iowa is compelled to fix nonexistent problems.”
She finished by telling Iowa lawmakers they should not throw foundational voting rights on top of the big lie.
“Instead of helping more Iowans vote, instead of helping Iowans debunk the big lie that was the root cause of an insurrection, the Iowa Republican Party turned a blind eye to the big lie and they’re submitting bills like this that signal to their base that they are fixing problems while they are actually creating more barriers and discouraging more people from voting,” she said. “It is incumbent on us to be honest with Iowans. Donald Trump lost the presidential election not due to fraud, but due to the fact that Joe Biden got more votes. Period. End of story.”
