Hunter
08/01/26
The Republican Party of Iowa is now trying to bring back Iowa’s absentee ballot signature verification GOP state lawmakers passed in 2017 as part of a Voter ID bill.
A Polk County judge struck down the signature verification portion of the law in 2019, but kept the voter ID portion, ruling that mandating voters show identification at polls is not against the Iowa Constitution.
Under the proposed law, county auditors would be able to reject absentee ballots if they thought the paperwork was signed by someone other than the registered voter.
The Iowa Republican Party said in a release Thursday that is was a common sense election integrity safeguard. They argued in their court filing that Iowa law has significantly changed since 2019 and the injunction that struck down the law should be vacated.
The Iowa Democratic Party questioned Republicans wanting to change Iowa’s election law a little more than three months ahead of the midterm elections.