‘Cooking the books’ and the reality of our Republican representation

To the Editor,

     Reading the latest from the Express on the reporting of the legislative forum, I find it unfortunate someone doesn’t take to task some of the innuendo that gets tossed about, knowing full well no one is going to question it.

     The newest “election laws,” passed on a completely Republican vote, were characterized as “protecting us from voter fraud and keeping the integrity of our elections safe.” Well, maybe. However, is shortening the amount of time significantly for absentee voters to get their ballots in really going to protect the vote? Understand, some of those votes are going to be coming from soldiers far removed from the county, for instance.

     Making the charge that three county auditors “cooked the books” needs some further investigation. Yes, they made a mistake, but the mistake they made was filling out parts of the information that was required to be filled out by the voter, hardly worth the charge of “cooking the books” as Senator Koelker was quoted to have said.

     Interestingly, the three counties tend to be strongly Democratic voter districts: Johnson County, Linn County, and Woodbury County. In the last election, over three-fourths of the Democrats voted absentee, likely the real reason this is all being done.

     Characterizing the County Auditors Association as the actions expected of a first-grade class that must all answer for a bully says more about the Republican bullies who forced this change than the Auditors Association that felt it to be bad legislation. Attempting to tell the public that they must legislate for these “bad actors” suggests they simply cannot fix the problem that likely is already fixed without doing an injustice to the entire election process.

     The worst of this legislation is the “purge” of the voter rolls. If you should miss a general election, you likely may find your registration to vote has been cancelled simply because you missed an election! Unfortunately, these are the legislators who are representing all of us: Democrat, Republican, and Independent. I think a fair assessment would suggest that what is happening in the Iowa Legislature appears to be an agenda that isn’t coming from the voters.

     The Democrats have their hands tied by the Republican majority in both houses and the Governor’s Office. Republicans used to be respectful of local control, but funding schools at less than the cost of inflation is not helping local school boards. Handing over $50 million to private schools that should be going to public schools is completely wrong. When public hearings on election changes and the turnout is 1,000 people registered not in favor versus 23 in favor, we don’t expect the chair, Bobby Kaufman, son of Republican Party Chair of Iowa, to ignore the voters and tell everybody the legislation will be passed on a straight Republican vote as soon as it comes up!

     Rep. Mary Mascher, Democrat from Iowa City said, “The bill has been fast-tracked and usually that occurs when a majority party decides that they want to push something through quickly without people being able to fully understand what’s actually in the bill. I don’t even think the public really knows right now what is or isn’t in the bill.”

Steve Hanken

Monticello, Iowa