Secretary of State Pate will mail an absentee ballot request form to every registered Iowa voter for the November election.
Iowa’s current absentee ballot system allows anyone who wants to vote by mail the option to do so. Just send in the request form when you receive it or download it online.
But, if Iowans prefer to vote in person, that remains your decision.
There has been a lot of misinformation claiming some massive federal intervention is needed to allow citizens to vote by mail.
That isn’t true in Iowa or elsewhere. Every state has vote by mail. 16 states ask for a reason, such as being over 65, but most have waived or loosened this requirement.
Some groups are using the pandemic to push for a federal mandate on states to adopt a new universal vote-by-mail system overnight.
It took 5 years when Washington State implemented this.
Requiring every state to replace their current voting systems with a whole new, centralized, mail-only system this close to an election is a recipe for disaster.
In such a system, every registered voter, including those who have died or moved away, would be automatically mailed a ballot with no voting in person.
Every Iowan who wants to vote absentee in November can do so, and those who want to vote in person can also do so safely.
It is your choice and should remain so.
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