When Duane Earl and his wife, Jean, applied for absentee ballots two weeks before Iowa’s June primary, they mailed them, expecting their application to arrive at the elections office within a day or two.
But when he got a call a few days later from Linn County officials telling him his application was too late and he’d have to find another way to vote, he began to wonder whether it was worth the trouble.
When the elections board picked up the phone, there were still 11 days until the primary, but a sweeping voting restrictions law signed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2021 requires that absentee ballot applications be received no later than 15 days before the election. The Earls were four days late.
“I just kind of forgot,” said Duane Earl of Cedar Rapids, “I’m 94, my wife is 92, and we surrendered our driver’s licenses in November.”
Iowa’s law, passed less than six months after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and falsely blamed Joe Biden’s victory on widespread voter fraud, implemented sweeping voting restrictions on multiple stages of the absentee voting process, early in-person voting and on Election Day, which led to reduced voter turnout, particularly through absentee ballots.
The next test will be the 2024 general election, when Democrats are targeting two Republican-held seats to win control of the House. The incumbents are Rep. Zach Nunn, who narrowly won his Des Moines-area seat in 2022, and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents the southeastern part of the state.
“It is our duty and responsibility to protect the integrity of all our elections,” Gov. Reynolds said in a statement as she signed the bill. “This bill will strengthen uniformity by providing a consistent standard for Iowa election officials.”
Duane Earl said he didn’t vote in June, but that was OK because there wasn’t much competition on the local ballot. Earl plans to vote in November, but said he might choose the Libertarian option over former President Donald Trump.
“Whatever happens, happens,” Duane Earl said. “Maybe I should have followed up sooner, but I never had any experience with not receiving my ballot.”
Iowa law cuts absentee ballot application period in half
Iowa’s voting law places restrictions on nearly every step of the voting process, from shortening the time it takes to register to vote to closing polling places early on Election Day, but its most far-reaching restrictions are on absentee voting.
The law makes it illegal for election officials to unilaterally send out absentee ballot applications or pre-fill ballots with voters’ names, addresses, or other information, meaning voters’ only option is to obtain an application, fill it out, and mail it back.
In previous elections, voters had 110 days to submit applications starting in early July. The law shortens that period to 55 days, so for the 2024 general election, voters won’t be able to submit applications until late August. The deadline for returning ballots is also five days earlier this year.
Republican state Sen. Robbie Smith, who introduced the bill, said on the floor before the bill was passed that the bill was meant to promote “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” through fair elections, and criticized his Democratic colleagues who say the bill is aimed at voter suppression.
Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said it authored the bill, and executive director Jessica Anderson praised Iowa for passing “common-sense reforms … to make the nation’s elections secure.”
“Iowa was the first state we worked in, and we worked quickly and quietly,” Anderson said in a video obtained by Mother Jones.
State Rep. Bobby Kaufman, a Republican who was one of the bill’s authors and served as a senior adviser to Trump’s Iowa campaign, told the USA Today Network that the group “literally has no ties” and “they’re lying.”
Rita Bettis Austin, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, criticized the bill, saying it would chip away at laws that were passed over a long period of time to make it easier for people to vote.
“There’s no evidence that any of this has encouraged fraud,” Austin said. “We don’t have any examples of that in our state. Lawmakers haven’t provided any evidence.”
Iowans describe hassle of voting in person
By law, election officials are required to notify voters if their absentee ballots arrive after the deadline and more than a week before an election. In Linn County, which includes Cedar Rapids, records show election officials contacted 30 applicants by phone or email ahead of the June primary.
Donna Wentz said she and her husband had been using absentee voting for 20 years before they ran into this problem. They liked the extra time it gave them to review their ballot and research candidates. But about a year and a half before the primary, her husband started using a wheelchair.
“They called me and let me know that my bill was late and I needed to vote in person, and that they would bring the ballot to my husband’s car,” Wentz said in an email.
But after looking at sample ballots online and seeing that the election was not competitive, the couple decided not to vote.
“It’s not easy for my husband to get in and out of the car,” Wentz said. “I really hope this never happens again because absentee service is so important for seniors and people with disabilities.”
According to data from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office, voter turnout fell 8% from the 2018 general election to the 2022 general election, the most recent comparison. Absentee voting also fell 31%.
Ashley Hunt, a spokeswoman for Governor Pate, a Republican, said the drop in voter turnout was unrelated to the new law and reflected record voter turnout in 2018 and a reduced competitiveness of Democratic candidates in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
“Voter turnout will depend heavily on campaigns and outreach efforts,” she said in a statement.
The biggest drop in absentee voting was among unaffiliated voters, who saw a 48% drop, followed by Republicans at 36% and Democrats at 19%.
Republican turnout increased 4% overall, including in-person voters, as some Republicans may have switched from voting absentee to voting in person after President Trump questioned the security of absentee voting in 2020.
“We are committed to ensuring election security and ensuring every Iowan can vote in every election,” Hunt said. “We’ve simplified the voter registration process so Iowans can register to vote in just three minutes and can also participate in same-day voter registration.”
Amelia Sleichert, a 35-year-old Cedar Rapids native who works in public health, said she sent in her absentee ballot application on May 20, 15 days before the June 4 primary election, when polls closed. Because her application arrived late, she received a call a few days later.
Her biggest frustration was that the requirements for an absentee ballot weren’t clearly communicated to her before she applied for one. She ended up voting in person, but it was still a hassle. She returned from a 40-minute commute on Election Day and rushed to let her dog out before heading to the polls before they closed.
“I’m not sure why these rules would increase safety,” Sleichert said.
Iowa is one of 10 states to shorten absentee filing period
Iowa is one of 10 states that have shortened the application period for mail-in ballots and is part of a trend, mostly in right-leaning states, to make it harder to vote absentee. Other key states include Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky and Arkansas.
“The 2020 election saw a lot of misinformation spread about alleged fraud with mail-in voting,” said Andrew Gerber, counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, “but the reality is that voting by mail is a safe and secure way to vote.”
Georgia’s 2021 bill shortened the period for applying for an absentee ballot by 109 days. Previously, voters could request a ballot 180 days before an election, but the bill shortens that to 78 days. The bill also moves up the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot by one week.
Ohio shortened the period for requesting an absentee ballot by four days and required voters to submit applications a full week before Election Day as part of a comprehensive election law that also tightened rules on voter ID and ballot drop boxes.
In the November 2022 general election, held months before Ohio’s law went into effect, 35% of voters used absentee ballots, according to data from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. In the three statewide elections held after the law passed, only 24% to 25% of voters used absentee ballots.
“There’s very little to be gained by making it harder to vote by mail, and it probably won’t make our elections more secure, but it will make it harder for a lot of people to vote,” Garber said. “That’s not an acceptable trade-off.”
