Iowa laws on voting may face a lawsuit

Rules on checking a box and on disallowing wrong-precinct votes are being challenged.

By LYNN CAMPBELL
Des Moines  REGISTER STAFF WRITER
October 20, 2004

  
Iowa's election laws are at risk of facing a legal challenge from voting-rights groups who say there are "several deficiencies in Iowa election procedures that threaten to unlawfully disenfranchise thousands of Iowa voters."

The League of Women Voters of Iowa, the National Voting Rights Institute and the Iowa Civil Liberties Union are among those challenging the state's requirements that voters check a citizenship box on registration forms and that reject votes cast in the wrong precinct.

"In Iowa, people are motivated to do the right thing in terms of voter enfranchisement," said Brenda Wright, managing attorney of the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston. "At the end of the day, the question isn't just, 'Are you trying to do the right thing?' The question is, 'Are your procedures going to disenfranchise people?' "

Voters-rights groups said ballots cast in the correct county but wrong precinct should still be counted. They said refusing to count those ballots would violate the federal Help America Vote Act and the U.S. Constitution.

Similar concerns over "provisional ballots," used when voters do not appear on the voter registration rolls, have spurred lawsuits in Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Michigan. Federal judges in Ohio and Michigan ruled in favor of voters-rights groups, while the Florida Supreme Court ruled against them.

In Iowa, Attorney General Tom Miller is reviewing the issue and is expected to offer his legal opinion this week. He's also expected to advise the state whether to accept registration forms if voters forgot to check a citizenship box but signed an affidavit certifying their eligibility to vote.

An Iowa lawsuit by the voting-rights groups is possible should Miller not allow the ballots and voter registration forms in question.

"We're not closing any doors," said Pat Jensen of Iowa City, president of the League of Women Voters in Iowa.

Litigation has become increasingly common in the 2004 election, following the controversy surrounding the presidential election four years ago. Election officials say between 4 million and 6 million Americans were disenfranchised that year.

Mindy Fletcher, a senior adviser to the Florida Republican Party, accused Democrats of spurring this year's lawsuits and "creating their own chaos." However, voting-rights groups maintained they are not affiliated with either political party.

"We're seeing an onslaught of lawsuits," Fletcher said. "There seems to be a concerted effort to throw out the law. It does no service to the system. . . . I think it's going to make for a more chaotic election night."

Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver said that states have had different interpretations of the federal Help America Vote Act. He said 23 states have said people's votes should count if they show up in the right county but wrong precinct, while other states have interpreted the issue of "provisional ballots" differently.

"These groups are suing in many states where they don't have that question resolved prior to Election Day," Culver said. "We just want to make sure prior to Election Day that we have procedures in place that we can avoid lawsuits if at all possible."

Polk County Auditor Michael Mauro said he agrees that failure to check the citizenship box should not prevent the processing of a registration application, as long as voters sign an affidavit that they're a U.S. citizen.

However, Mauro does not believe voters should be allowed to cast ballots anywhere in their county.

"In my opinion, they need to go to their proper precinct," Mauro said. "If you can vote wherever you want to, who's going to dissect these? Are we supposed to start dissecting ballots? We're going to be here until Christmas."

Culver said improvements since early 2001 include 100 new voting machines in six counties, which replaced old-fashioned lever machines with optical scan machines.

Culver said new voter rights posters will be up at all 1,980 precincts, telling voters they can call (888) SOS-VOTE if they have any concerns.

In addition, he said 30 more polling sites will be accessible to voters with disabilities, and Braille voter information will be available at all precincts.

A new book of Iowa rules has been printed. For example, acceptable marks include a cross, check mark, asterisk, plus sign and diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines, as long as the marks are consistently used throughout the ballot and are inside the target voting spaces. Early problems Iowa had with misprinted absentee ballots in eight counties - Johnson, Plymouth, Des Moines, Henry, Lee, Louisa, Kossuth and Fremont - and an inability to verify Social Security numbers on voter registration applications have largely been resolved, election officials said Tuesday. Aside from traditional poll watchers sent by political parties, thousands of attorneys will be monitoring Election Day activities in Iowa and other swing states.

Democratic groups have lined up attorneys for promoting and protecting the vote.

"Teams of lawyers will be available in targeted precincts around the country to help voters with any problems they may encounter at polls on Election Day," said Matt Gannon, who's organizing attorneys to be dispatched in Iowa.

Republicans also said they'll have a crew of lawyers available for questions on Election Day, although they said they won't necessarily be dispatched to states. Poll watchers are expected at all 1,980 precincts.

"The Republicans will be vigilant in our effort to monitor the voting process," said Kristin Scuderi, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Iowa.

Culver said Iowans shouldn't fear the kind of problems seen in Florida four years ago. He said Iowa had no systematic errors, recount or lawsuits in 2000. Still, election officials are prepared for a possible recount this year, which would have to be requested by the candidate in each county where a recount is desired.

"We're preparing for any situation that might unfold on Election Day," Culver said. "Iowa has a reputation for clean, open and honest elections. With significant improvements over the last three and a half years, I feel very good about where we are headed into November."