A Johnson County judge upheld a law preventing auditors from using databases to aid the process of absentee ballot applications Monday. These databases would help to fill out missing and incorrect information on the forms. 

The League of United Latin American Citizens and Majority Forward filed a lawsuit in July to prevent the enforcement of the law and said it was unconstitutional and could disenfranchise eligible voters, according to an ABC article.

This law requires that county auditors contact voters directly by phone, email or mail to correct or fill in any information. Political science professor and director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center, Karen Kedrowski expects a record number of absentee ballots this November. 

A common error made on these ballot request forms is forgetting to sign the envelope. David Peterson,  Lucken professor of political science, explains that the envelope contains the identifying information, which cannot be linked back to the ballot where votes are casted.

To make sure votes are counted this election, Kedrowski and Murphy Burke, state press secretary for NextGen Iowa, recommend that students make a plan to vote early on and take the necessary steps to make sure the plan unfolds. 

Peterson said this is important because people intending to vote may not have their vote counted. He said those who are in favor of vote by mail do not want simple, correctable mistakes to disqualify ballots. 

“There’s a real tension between voting rights advocates who want to get ballots in the hands of as many people as possible and to make that as easy for voters as possible, and those who want to make sure that there is no opportunity for fraud or deception at all,” Kedrowski said.

One side argues to uphold the law because it provides a safeguard against fraud in the election. 

Burke said this lawsuit is a part of the bigger picture of voter suppression in Iowa.

“The Trump administration knows that people were interested in voting by mail and in counties that are largely democratic, they sued when those county auditors tried to make the process easier,” she said.

Burke also mentions Iowa’s voter I.D. law as another form of voter suppression, which she says has an unfair impact on Iowa State students and is an attempt to keep them from voting.  

She said the pushback against this law is informing students they can become an Iowa voter even if they don’t have an Iowa I.D. If students are registered early, they will get an I.D. card in the mail and if students wish to register on Election Day, there are other forms of identification that can be brought to their polling location, which can be found on the secretary of state’s website.  

Kedrowski said the state would benefit from making certain exceptions to the usual voting rule in light of the pandemic. 

“Examples of where flexibility could be put in place that will recognize that we are in a really unusual situation and that we need to be thinking creatively to deal with a rather unprecedented and difficult set of circumstances,” she said. 

She said this may be an example of how the law has not caught up with technology.  

If students decide to cast absentee ballots, they can check to make sure their request has been received and approved on the county auditor office webpage.