Trump campaign, Republican groups sue Iowa election officials over absentee ballot forms
IOWA CITY, Iowa –President Donald Trump's campaign and several national Republican political committees are suing auditors in two Iowa counties who they accuse of having gone "rogue" in issuing absentee ballot request forms ahead of November's election.
Already, the Johnson County Auditor's Office is reporting 9,634 requests in their system with more than 3,000 awaiting processing. And Linn County Auditor Joel Miller told the Press-Citizen he had already received an estimated 40,000 requests.
The suit asks the courts to invalidate these absentee ballot requests, requiring voters to resubmit before an Oct. 24 deadline in order to receive their absentee ballot.
Citing public health concerns, the auditors announced plans on July 1 to mail every active registered voter a request already containing information the voter will need to request an absentee ballot ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. The prepopulated form only requires the voter to check that the information is correct, sign the request and send it to the county auditor.
While neither auditor will comment on pending litigation, the auditors defended their actions in the past. Since they already have the required information and because a new law prevents their office staff from filling in missing information on voters' behalf, they argue that prepopulating the forms helps remove barriers to voting.
The Republican National Committee, Donald J. Trump for President Inc., the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Party of Iowa announced lawsuits Wednesday. They were filed in the district courts for Johnson and Linn counties.
The suits seek to invalidate tens of thousands of ballot request forms already returned to the auditors on the grounds that the auditors included more information on the forms than those being sent by the Iowa Secretary of State's Office.
At the end of July, the same group of Republican organizations sought to dismiss a lawsuit from the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa and the group Majority Forward, which challenged a new state law barring county auditors from filling in missing information when voters request absentee ballots.
More states turn to absentee ballots as an safety measure during the pandemic. However, Iowa's state officials say, if not checked, the system here could be abused. This despite a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud in previous mail-in elections. This summer, state Republicans have gone as far as to add additional oversight over fellow Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate's emergency election powers to make sure absentee request forms meet the party's expectations.
Linn and Johnson are the second and fourth-most populated counties in the state. As of August, Johnson County had 91,616 active registered voters: 54% were registered Democrats; just 19% were registered Republicans. Linn County had 146,784 active registered voters: 40% were registered Democrats; 27% were registered Republicans.
The lawsuit specifically relates to what kind of information can be included on absentee ballot request forms sent to active registered voters. State Republicans believe that only the election's date and that the ballot is for a general election should be completed on voters' behalf. The county auditors are being sued for sending out request forms that are already populated with all of the required information and only need to be signed and returned.
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"Iowans overwhelmingly support voter ID laws to uphold the integrity of our elections, and we strongly believe election officials should be upholding current state law, not defying it," Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said in a statement.
"While Iowa County Auditors have gone rogue and rewritten the rules for absentee ballot security, President Trump and his team are once again standing up for election integrity and the right of every eligible voter to safely and securely cast their ballot this fall," Matthew Morgan, general counsel for Trump's reelection campaign, said in a news release. "Dropping thousands of ballot applications with personal information already filled out in the mail is wildly irresponsible.”
Absentee Ballot Request forms: This summer's hot-button issue
The dust-up over mail-in voting comes after Pate announced record-breaking voter participation after sending absentee ballot request forms to active registered voters ahead of Iowa's June 2 primaries.
According to Pate's office's website, more than 411,000 of the ballots cast in June's primaries came from absentee voters — a number that dramatically outpaced the 38,000 absentee votes cast in the 2016 primaries.
After the primary election, though, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law that dictated secretaries of state cannot issue ballot request forms without approval from Iowa's Legislative Council, a body comprised of members from both the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House of Representatives and which is controlled by Republicans. On July 1, the council rejected a push from the Legislature's Democrats to have ballot request forms mailed out to registered voters.
The same day, Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert and Linn County Auditor Joel Miller announced their plans to send absentee ballot request forms to their respective counties' active registered voters.
Both counties' forms are prepopulated with a voter's name, four-digit voter PIN, date of birth and other information that the voter is required to provide in order for a ballot to be issued. Voters requesting a ballot are asked to review the information and ensure it is correct, sign the form and return it in a prepaid envelope.
On July 17, the council met and approved a plan proposed by Pate, clearing the way for his office to send every active registered voter a form.
The council stipulated, however, that the forms distributed by the Secretary of State's office would include just the date of November's election and that the ballot requested would be for a general election.
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If the secretary of state's office's forms are returned to a county auditor's office without the correct information, the measure signed into law on June 25 prevents the offices from filling in missing information or correcting errors.
"How can you tell me that what I'm doing is wrong when all I'm doing is promoting voting. I'm not targeting one party and not another," Weipert told the Press-Citizen in July.
The Press-Citizen reached out to Weipert and Miller, who said he was unable to comment on pending litigation. Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
Follow Zachary Oren Smith on Twitter @Zacharyos.
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This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Absentee ballots: Trump campaign sues Iowa officials over request
