Bad Election Bill Is Bad

The Roby Smith Bad Election Bill is here and it's bad.

 

SSB1199 or HSB213 (text looks the same) would cut early voting - mail and in person - to 18 days, down from 29 last year and from 40 in 2016. And that's not even the worst item:

"The (county) commissioner shall not send an absentee ballot application to a voter." 

My read of that is: AT ALL, not even if the voter specifically asks. Shut In Great Grandma with no printer calls and asks for a request form, and we can't help.

 

Other lowlights include a lot of micromanaging of auditors to address imaginary problems like dead voters or auditors not doing list maintenance. Speaking of which...

 

Voters would be inactivated after missing ONE general election, not two. And that's just for not voting, not for mail getting returned. They're inactivated THEN sent a card they have to respond to. Miss one governor election and the cancellation clock starts ticking.

 

In a nod to the Libertarians, petition requirements are once again raised. This is about Cindy Axne winning twice with under 50% because a Libertarian in a tricorner hat pulls votes away from David Young. 

 

Requirements for nominating convention attendance are also increased, to a point where even the major parties would have difficulty seating enough delegates to fill a legislative district vacancy (25 people).

 

Satellite voting would, to my surprise, not be completely banned, but auditors could not set sites on their own. Only petitioned sites would be allowed. That'll increase costs - a lot of times, people ask nice for a satellite and we schedule the three or four hours they really want. A petition obligates the auditor to six hours.

 

The bill would eliminate the use of USPS postmarks to decide if a ballot is on time, and instead would only allow intelligent barcodes. Overseas mail does not have these barcode, though I'm not sure if federal law would overrule this item.

 

Ballot chasing (often called "harvesting" though "chasing" is the Iowa vernacular) would be banned. Only relatives, caregivers, or housemates could return your ballot - you can't hep your neighbor.

 

Remember that couple days last fall when it looked like dropboxes were banned? This bill does codify the use of dropboxes, but limits them to one per county and only at the auditor's office. There's also some regulation which doesn't differ much from our actual practice.

 

The first day to request a ballot would move to 70 days prior to the election, which was the law through 2002. From 2004 to 2016 there was no first day, we had to hold forms for literally years (my record was 18 months). Then it was moved to 120 days in 2017.

My professional and political feelings differ here. In a college town where every lease turns over on August 1, way-too-soon requests are a problem, and were a big problem in 2004. (I was living in a high turnover apartment complex that year, and we were doorknocked in JUNE.) People request the ballot then move, and we mail the ballot to a bad address. So I liked the old 70 day law. 

 

But: Combined with later laws requiring forms to be handed in within 72 hours, 70 days would basically kill summer doorknocking for ABRs.

 

One thing I don't see is an 8 PM poll close, but that's in the SOS "technical" bill already. That bill also shortens the time-off on election day requirement from 3 hours to two, in order to facilitate the 8 PM close. 

 

(The only reason 8 PM close got shot down last election bill was because business was looking at the three hours off to vote requirement. A lot of plants run 6 to 6 shifts, and the 9 PM poll close gave people the required three hours off.)
 

18 days is bad for in person voting: longer lines and bigger crowds.

 

 

18 days is absolutely unacceptable for mailed voting. 29 days was just barely enough time, IF everything went well with no problems. 

 

18 days means anyone who is out of town or shut in who has ANY kind of problem - mail delay, spoiled ballot, any problem at all - is just out of luck. 18 days also compresses all the mailing out into ONE WEEK, burdening both the post offices and the election staffs.

 

(It's DOA of course, but my senator, Democratic leader Zach Wahls, introduced a bill that would expand the early voting window to 45 days, which is consistent with what overseas voters get under federal law.)

 

This bill could have been even worse, but it's bad enough. That's what I got for now. Watch closely, fight to stop it, fight to make it less bad. Don't make me tell Great Grandma I can't mail her an ABR.