Pate’s SOS Voting Program: The Good, The Bad and the Meh

Republican Iowa Secretary of State Candidate Paul Pate, the once and we hope future Secretary of State (SOS), issued a press release* earlier in the week outlining what he will advocate regarding voting matters under the SOS’s purview.  Keep in mind that the Democrats are not making such a big push to take the SOS office away from Republicans because they are intensely interested in facilitating business registrations (generically, the other part of the job) or voter integrity. They don’t lavishly fund a political hack for the office for either of those purposes.  They put up a highly partisan hack to be in a position to minimize scrutiny of their party’s activities

We have set forth Pate’s plan below with our critique in red below each advocacy point.  The words in bold are his words that we want to particularly call attention to.

September 11, 2014                                                 CONTACT: Pate for Iowa
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                         319-929-2777
PATE PLAN PROMOTES AND STRENGTHENS IOWA ELECTIONS
ENCOURAGE VOTER PARTICIPATION AND ELECTION INTEGRITY
Make it Easy to Vote and Hard to Cheat

This slogan is basically the same as adopted by the Republican State Leadership Committee. In our book it is just too trite.  How much easier could it possibly be to vote in Iowa?  With same day registration, no photo ID required, satellite voting in sizable cities and forty days of early voting NO ONE has any significant impediment other than being in a coma and that would not stop Democrats from obtaining that vote. 

Make it “hard to cheat”??  How about a goal of making it impossible to cheat?  Better said, how about “I will insure the integrity of the vote.”  Opinion surveys confirm that  rank and file Democrats support photo voter ID.  The opposition to voter integrity reforms is from Democrat hacks who lie and unions and “community organizers” that don’t want their bailiwick of intimidation fraud and unscrupulous tactics messed with. And who is that slogan intended for that will ever vote for a Republican?  We have won the photo voter ID argument. Pursue it unapologetically.  Don’t offset the value with the “make voting easier” than it is non-sense.

Cedar Rapids, IA)  Today, former Iowa Secretary of State and Mayor of Cedar Rapids, Paul D. Pate has released his plan to encourage voter participation while strengthening the integrity of Iowa’s elections.

I traveled all across this great state meeting with county auditors and listening to their advice and concerns which prompted me to host a bi-partisan roundtable summit in Des Moines.  There we discussed many issues including voter participation while maintaining the integrity of the election process.  Today I am sharing a plan to strengthen Iowa elections to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

1. VOTER ID:  Like a majority of Iowans, I believe we need a verifiable voter identification tool to be used when voters go to the polls to cast a ballot.  Currently 93% of registered voters in Iowa already have a driver’s license with photo ID that includes a bar code on the back which may be scanned.  The information provided in the bar code identifies your residency, citizenship and voter eligibility.   I will seek funding to provide the remaining 7% a non-driver ID card from the Department of Transportation.

This is good.  Excellent point made about how few voters do not already have a driver’s license. Call it Photo Voter ID

2. TECHNOLOGY:  Enhance technology like signature verification for absentee ballots.  Provide an online voter information app so you can easily find where you vote and review a sample ballot.  I support the expanded use of electronic poll books to ease voter check-in, increase accuracy and voter verification.   Currently 68 counties use electronic poll books and I will work to expand this technology to all 99 counties.

We are hinky about government signature verification because of hacking concerns.  With appropriate safeguards OK. Something needs to be done to verify that requesting absentee ballots can only be done by the actual individual voter.  At present it would not be too hard to request an absentee vote for someone and vote that election unbeknownst to the real voter by monitoring or falsifying the mailing address.

3. ABSENTEE BALLOTS:  I propose to eliminate absentee ballot couriers from the election process.  Absentee ballots are one of the highest risks for voter fraud.  I believe no one should be touching your absentee ballot except you, an authorized election official or a postal worker.

Fine. Better, as a good government measure, go back to restricting absentee voting to good cause.  Voting forty days before an election for any reason increases the fraud opportunity and is a lousy good government approach to an informed citizenry.

4. POST ELECTION AUDITS:  No voting system is perfect and the number of states requiring post election audits has increased over the last few years according to data collected by The PEW Charitable Trust.  Some benefits of post election audits include; finding errors, deterring fraud and promoting public confidence in elections.  Working with county auditors I will implement a post election audit system in Iowa.

Good.  And challenge your opponent to advocate the same.

5. YOUTH VOTER REGISTRATION:  Work closely with Iowa’s high schools to encourage our youth to be active in their government and to ensure every high school student on graduation day has both a diploma and a voter registration card in their hands,

Instead how about advocating for a curriculum that emphasizes the Constitution and the separation of powers.  It is not your job to encourage the naive and constitutionally ignorant to vote.

6. ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION:  As of June 2014 a total of 20 states offer online voter registration and four more states passed legislation to create online voter registration systems while three states offer limited online voter registration.  I will work with the Iowa Legislature and support passage of online voter registration that will be secure, prevent fraud and provide long-term cost savings as well as modernize our voting system.

Bad — Why in any way is this important and how could it not be vulnerable to mischief at the very least?

7. INTERSTATE EXCHANGE OF VOTER LISTS:  Continue to participate in the Interstate Voter Registration Cross Check program which is a plan created to help states maintain accurate and current voter registration rolls.  This program helps ensure voters are correctly registered at one location.  I will also explore being part of the Electronic Registration Information Center organization.

Good – Make sure the information exchange is adequate to all forms of fraud prevention.

Pate, “During my term as Secretary of State, Iowa had a record number of registered voters and was in the Top 10 nationally in voter participation in a presidential election.  I created bi-partisan programs to encourage voter participation like “Get in the Game” with Iowa Football coach Hayden Fry and Iowa State Coach Dan McCarney as well as “Generation VOTE” with Iowa native Terri Farrell of Deep Space Nine.  With these outreach programs we were able to reach over 65,000 first time voters.  For the youth we worked closely with Iowa’s high school government teachers to implement the “Kids Caucus” program to educate over 100,000 students about our unique presidential caucus program.  I will continue making such efforts to best serve the people of Iowa.”

Pumping voter participation is not a proper job of the SOS. Insuring voter integrity is. We do not want tax 
money spent encouraging voting for the sake of voting numbers. Encouraging low information voting should not be a goal. Better an informed plebiscite. Requiring some small amount of intestinal fortitude to vote is a good thing. Increasing early voting is not a good thing from a Republican partisan or a non-nonpartisan good government perspective.  If it is then why not allow peoples’ votes in perpetuity for a party unless they change the authorization? That would increase “participation” as if that is some unassailable virtue on 
its own. This idea of increasing voter participation given the ease of voting is more a fetish if it is a sincere non-partisan thought, and an advocacy against interests for Republicans to encourage ignorant people to vote. It is right up Democrats ally.

It is arguable that more people should have the discretion not to vote until they develop enough interest and knowledge to know what they are voting for or against. That is not an argument for elitism but for informed voters. Besides, Republicans have shown themselves  so inept at responding to negative ads or of going effectively on the attack, low information voting is not something to be encouraged. Requiring some volition and some patriotic formality is healthy. Encouraging voting primarily on election day after contenders have had their say is the good government responsible way to approach voting. That used to be the Republican way.

R Mall

*We first became aware of the press release via The Iowa Republican which posted the press release without comment.

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