Letter to the Editor: "Absentee voting has been made more difficult, thanks to Iowa Senate Republicans"

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Carol Birkland of Decorah):

"In a last-minute move, Republican senators slipped in an amendment to the state's budget bill that will make absentee voting more difficult in November.

The Republican-controlled legislature had already stopped the Secretary of State from sending out absentee ballot applications to every Iowa registered voter, as he did in the June primary when 80 percent of voters voted absentee.  Governor Reynolds noted that his action was 'fine' considering Covid-19.

Not satisfied, Senate Republicans also wanted to make the application process more complicated and they got their wish.  The amendment means that if County Auditor Ben Steines receives an absentee ballot application that is missing some information, he must get on the phone to the voter.  If nobody answers the phone, he must email or snail mail the voter to get the information BEFORE he can send out the absentee ballot.

In short, he and all other Iowa county auditors must chase down voters to get this information when before all he had to do was consult his registered voter data base.  Remember, these are REGISTERED VOTERS so the only reason for this amendment is to make the absentee application process more difficult and time-consuming and less voter-friendly.

In 2016, 1.5 million Iowans voted.  If 80 percent of them decide to vote absentee this fall, imagine the mess this law will create when auditors must deal with 1.2 million absentee ballot applications.  Will everybody who wants to get a ballot get it in time to vote and send it back?  The answer is probably 'no' because the mess in the Georgia primary confirms that.  Result: voter suppression, which is just what Republican senators want. And by the way, they also cut $250,000 from the Secretary of State's budget at a time when that office needs every penny it can get to deal with November absentee voting.

Breitbach is not up for re-election, so he does not care.  Matt Tapscott of Decorah is running for this seat.  The only way to stop this madness is to get rid of those who create it by voting them OUT.  We can do our part by voting for Matt in November."