Voter IDs required at polls in 2019

Jasper County Auditor Dennis Parrott says county election officials will be ready for changes to Iowa’s voting laws in 2019 when the next round of countywide elections hit in November, the first after the state’s new voter ID law fully goes into effect.

Voter ID, officially called the Election Modernization and Integrity Act, is being fully-enforced as of Jan. 1. The law now requires Iowa voters to show a valid, state-issued voter or approved government ID at the polls to cast a ballot.

Jasper County’s elections director Tina Mulgrew and Parrott’s office began preparing for the changes as early as the 2018 primaries. Parrott said, seven days ahead of last year’s elections, local volunteer poll workers had two hours of training and were shown examples of the different types of IDs they might see.

During the 2018 midterm elections, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office worked with county auditors for a “soft rollout” of the law. Registered voters were not required to show an ID to vote. Poll workers were trained to ask for the identification but if voters could not present it, they were given the option of signing an “honesty pledge” and a provisional ballot.

Pate told the Newton Daily News during a September 2018 stop in Newton that no voter was to be turned away in 2018.

“That is why I was so insistent on the soft roll out because I felt we needed to give the voters a chance to go through this,” said Pate, a Republican. “Every time you vote, that experience reinforces it, and I can’t emphasize enough the importance of poll workers.”

According to the SOS Office, voters casting ballots in 2019 and into the future without the ID will be offered a provisional ballot and can provide the required identification prior to or up to the deadline for that election — typically the following Monday.

Voter ID cards were mailed out to Jasper County voters in 2018, and a new or replacement card can be requested from the county auditor’s office free of charge.

“Elections continue year-round in Iowa and it’s important to make sure you are voter ready before heading to the polls,” Pate said.

From Parrott’s experience, voters in Jasper County who have filed a provisional ballot rarely return to certify their identity. He believes that’s because, usually, a winner has already been declared by the time the voter can return to the auditor’s office with ID — one of the issues the county auditor sees with the law.

Parrott said for the 85 percent of voters who present an Iowa driver’s license or IDOT-issued ID card, the process for poll workers should be smooth. However, other not-so-common forms of accepted ID, such as a U.S. Military or veteran ID card, could add some confusion or slow down the process, Parrott said.

“The legislature seems to make elections more complicated all the time for the people trying to serve the voters,” Parrott said.

Parrott, a Democrat, said one of the biggest obstacles in training poll workers for the new law is teaching how to accurately compare both the ID photo and ID signature to the person in front of them. Parrott said it’s up to the poll workers’ discretion. If a volunteer thinks the photo on the identification card doesn’t look like the voter, they will be asked to sign an affidavit and that signature will be used as a back-up form of verification.

The problem, Parrott said: there is no available training method for pollsters on handwriting identification.

“You would have to be a handwriting analyst to compare what’s on paper to what’s on the card,” Parrott said. “There are no markers or benchmarks that we really can instruct. Same as the photos, it’s eyeballing the person and making their best judgment.”

The Iowa Democratic Party and civil rights activists have criticized the law and other’s like it around the country, arguing IDs at the polls is a form of voter suppression, disenfranchising minority and low-income voters who may have more difficulty acquiring a proper ID.

But Pate maintains the law is meant to prevent voter fraud.

“This is about making it easy to vote, but hard to cheat, while ensuring no eligible voter is turned away,” Pate said in a written statement. “Voters who do not possess a valid Iowa driver’s license or non-operator’s ID are mailed a free Voter ID card, automatically. If you misplaced it or believe you did not receive the card, just call your county auditor and you will be sent a new one.”

The first countywide election this year will be votes for city councils and school boards in November. Seeing Iowa’s city and school elections together on the same ballot is another first in for 2019.

“This year, for the first time, city and school elections will be merged,” Pate said. “I hope that will spur greater participation on the local level. I want all eligible Iowans to make their voices heard.”

Parrott said there is the likelihood of a city or district-specific special election before November, which could see the new law in action in Jasper County earlier this year.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at 641-792-3121 Ext. 6530 or at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com