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The Iowa secretary of state’s race essentially boils down to a battle between a Des Moines incumbent who says he has made voting more accessible and has saved taxpayers money, and will continue to do so; and a Council Bluffs challenger who wants to require voters to show identification at polling places to prevent fraud.
The incumbent is Michael A. Mauro, a Democrat. The challenger is Matt Schultz, a Republican.
The secretary of state is Iowa’s chief election officer. The office also registers all corporations and provides information for and about businesses.
Schultz, 31, is a lawyer. He was elected to the Council Bluffs City Council in 2005, while still going to law school at Creighton University.
Mauro, 62, a former Polk County auditor, has standardized voting systems across all 99 Iowa counties since taking office in 2007.
“Prior to us coming into office there were many, many voting systems across all counties in Iowa,” he said.
Mauro has been endorsed by 45 Iowa county auditors, 13 of them Republicans, including Marilyn Jo Drake of Pottawattamie County.
Much of the talk during the campaign has been about Schultz’s push to require voters to present ID. Such requirements are controversial, with critics elsewhere describing them as potentially damaging to minority participation.
But in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law that required voters to produce identification at polling places. A key reason that law was upheld is that Indiana provides a free voter ID card to those who lack identification. Such voters are allowed to cast provisional ballots, then appear at the county courthouse within 10 days to get ID cards.
“On Day 1, I am going to propose legislation that mirrors the Indiana law,” Schultz said.
Schultz has said he does not know how much mandatory voter identification would cost to implement or exactly where the money would come from.
Mauro said he does not have a problem with requiring voters to produce IDs — as long as the identification is free to the voter.
But Schultz said he found the incumbent’s position “disingenuous.” He asked why Mauro hasn’t pressed lawmakers to introduce legislation on the issue. Mauro has backed sweeping legislation on other topics, he said.
Mauro said he has worked on election issues for 28 years in Iowa and does not know of a single prosecution for voter fraud.
But Schultz said that doesn’t mean voter fraud hasn’t occurred.
“To me, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s happened or not,” he said. “The question is: How do we keep it from happening? ... Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it won’t.”
Mauro’s office has also made voting easier for people with disabilities. All polling places now have a ballot-marking device that helps the disabled vote.
“For those kind of voters,” Mauro said, “that is about as good as it gets for them, and they appreciate that.”
In order to make voting less costly, school elections are now held every other year as opposed to every year, Mauro said. And the statewide voter registration database was brought in-house after being operated by a private vendor, saving $300,000 to $500,000 every year.
And the Secretary of State’s Office has saved money in lean times by cutting its staff from 38 to 30, he said.
Schultz is not concerned not about the possibility of voter fraud. He said he wants to make the office more business-friendly. He wants to make it possible to file and pay for articles of incorporation online.
“If you want to create a new limited-liability corporation you have to mail it in or fax it in,” he said. “Well, what’s the difference between e-mailing a PDF or faxing?”
Schultz wants to offer online classes for business owners about how to use the E-Verify system on the Secretary of State’s Office website. The system allows employers to verify the immigration status of job applicants. Mauro has criticized E-Verify, saying that it misses many people and that no secretary of state in the United States uses it.
“It’s not a perfect system,” Schultz said. “But it does help catch illegal immigrants.”
Contact the writer:
444-1310, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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