I'm deep into the election season bubble. By the time I get home, usually a little late, take my buddy Teddy for his nightly walk, and grab a bite, I'm usually too burned out to sit down and write.
But as in any election season, there's a lot of misinformation floating around, and even off the clock I feel a responsibility to set the record straight.
I may amend this post from time to time in the next 28 days, if any other particular alternative facts gain traction. But for the moment, these are the biggest Misleading Memes.
A provisional ballot should be though of as an absolute last resort. Just because you marked a ballot does not mean you "voted." There is a HUGE amount of misinformation and misunderstanding surrounding provisional ballots - which are one of my specific job duties. I organize the provisional ballots the morning after the election, look into the circumstances, and pass my findings and my knowledge of the law along to our absentee board, which makes the decision on which ballots are counted.
For me, the most frustrating thing about provisional ballot law in Iowa is that the poll workers are not allowed to communicate clearly on whether or not a provisional ballot can or will be counted. So I am communicating clearly with you now. The law is very clear on this point:
A provisional ballot cast in the wrong precinct will NOT count!
If the poll workers tell you that you are in the wrong precinct, you should NOT "demand a provisional ballot as required by law." You should get directions to the correct precinct and you should get your ass there as fast as possible, even if it's only five minutes till the polls close. You maybe have a chance to get there in time - which is better than guaranteed rejection.
Laws vary by state but in Iowa the main reason you should be voting a provisional ballot is because you don't have ID with you AND you do not have a way to go home and get it in time. In this case, a provisional ballot buys you time. You can come in to the auditor's office until noon the Monday after the election and show your ID.
There are a couple other narrow circumstances in which you should vote a provisional ballot. If you show up as a match on the felony list, and believe there is an error and/or your rights have been restored, you can vote a provisional. This is really really rare.
The other circumstance is if your absentee ballot has already been rejected for a signature or seal error. In our county, many sets of eyes look at each ballot envelope, and if anyone sees a problem that would lead to the ballot being rejected, the voter is contacted ASAP and the ballot is set aside in a special "problem box" to making it easier to find when you come in to fix it, and to give voters as much time as possible to fix problems.
But occasionally one gets all the way through to the absentee board and is rejected. In that case it's too late to fix the original ballot and a provisional is your only option. Again, we try to contact you (your party observers will be trying as well).
This leads to another bit of misinformation that I saw flying around in 2020: the dreaded "naked ballot." Sorry, pervs, I don't have a picture for that one. I had never heard the term before 2020, but a "naked ballot" is one that is not in a secrecy folder. Apparently that was a big issue in Pennsylvania.
In Iowa, an absentee ballot not in a secrecy folder is NOT a "your vote won't count" mistake. But it often leads to a real problem. People think, oops, I forgot the secrecy folder. So they open the envelope back up - and that IS a mistake that voids your ballot. And unlike a missing signature, you can't fix that problem. You have to vote over again, and if you are out of town you're basically just screwed. Iowa's 20 day voting window is simply not enough time to make two round trips through the mail.
I kind of get the evil logic or intent behind most vote suppression laws. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what problem people have with drop boxes. The things are built like tanks and in our state at least are required to be on camera.
Anyway. We got our first drop boxes in 2020 during peak COVID. The then-auditor and us staffers talked about locations, but decided that we weren't really comfortable putting one anywhere except at our office.
Which leads me to the Iowa specific point of this misinformation meme. In 2021 state law was changed. Now, the auditor's office is the ONLY place a drop box is allowed. And we are only allowed to have one - which ruined a nice two-lane setup we had in 2020. So don't look "usually near libraries" in our state.
This is also a variation on a 2020 theme, I think from Oklahoma, telling voters they needed to put extra postage on ballots.
In Iowa, ballots have been postage paid - by counties, not by the state - since the 2004 cycle. It was a good thing done for the wrong reasons; the idea was to discourage voters from letting campaigns pick up their ballots, a practice called "chasing" in the Iowa political vernacular. That's been illegal for a couple cycles now in Iowa, but the postage paid law remains. (You won't save your county any money by putting stamps on your envelope - that money was already run through the postage meter and spent.)
I'm not going to get into all the rumors about the post office. I will repeat something I have said for ages: Don't vote by mail unless you have no other options. I used to say "I can fix any problem with enough time," but in Iowa we no longer have enough time. In person early voting is a much safer option. You don't have to wait on delivery, and a poll worker will look over your envelope to make sure things are in order. Different counties have different schedules (here's ours), but in every county you can vote in the office and as long as you an get your elderly relative into the car you can get a curbside ballot. In Johnson County, we even have a drive-thru.
Your local election office is going to have the best and most accurate information. Look at their website and their social media before jumping to conclusions. (Our office had people much younger and cooler than me doing the social media, so it looks a lot better than this clunky old blog.) And that's something you can Share Widely.
