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Iowans rebuke Trump’s claims of ‘rigged’ election

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

Officials across the U.S. are speaking out against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s latest claims of a “rigged” election.

Trump let out a new series of accusations early this week against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign and “the media,” both during his scheduled rally appearances with supporters and on his Twitter account.

“This election is being rigged by the media pushing false and unsubstantiated charges, and outright lies, in order to elect Crooked Hillary!” Trump tweeted on Oct. 15.

“Of course there is a large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day,” he tweeted on Oct. 17. “Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!”

The backlash has been bipartisan, coming from Republicans like U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate.

“Iowa is one of the best states in the nation for both voter participation and voter integrity,” Pate, also Iowa’s Election Commissioner, said in an Oct. 17 statement. “We work on a bipartisan basis every day with Republicans and Democrats, and all 99 county auditors, to maintain the integrity of the vote. I will do everything in my power to ensure Iowa’s elections remain clean and fair.”

Floyd County has not had cases of voter fraud, Floyd County Auditor Gloria Carr said in an email response to the Press, but there was one case of absentee ballot request impropriety investigated in 2012. Carr was first elected Floyd County Auditor in 2004. 

The auditor’s office worked with the county attorney and a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent in 2012 after claims that ahead of the general election, campaign workers were advising household members that they could sign absentee ballot request forms for other members of their household. Although the signatures on the absentee ballot request forms were legally invalid, none of the involved household members reported someone voting on someone else’s ballot.

“Iowa’s Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request forms both require the voters signature, and falsifying a signature on the document has consequences of being charged with perjury,” Carr wrote. “In at least two households, the campaign worker allegedly signed voter’s names on the request form; the campaign headquarters was notified and subsequently the campaign worker was no longer campaigning in this area.”

The auditor’s office worked with involved household members to obtain valid ballot request forms for those who intended to vote absentee, Carr added.

Iowa has several means for counties to keep voter registration up-to-date to prevent voting under the names of deceased individuals, according to Carr. County auditors can confirm deceased voters through the secretary of state’s database, which links to the Department of Public Health. Auditors also annually access information on voters “who have had no ‘voter initiated’ activity in four years,” Carr said, including no changes made to names, address or party affiliation, or voters who have not voted in any election for the prior four years.

Iowa also has a national change of address process, which allows the secretary of state and the U.S. Postal Service to compare address records across both databases.

“It would be naïve to say that voter fraud doesn’t exist,” Carr said. “I implore that voters will be true and honest when they declare their eligibility to vote, swearing that they are a resident, will only vote once for any given election and that they understand any false statements is a criminal offense punishable by law. I’m proud to be in Iowa, a state that has taken great (measures) with respect to election integrity.”

In a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo, Iowa Rep. Steve King said that while he believed there is evidence of voter fraud, he strongly disagreed the election process will be “rigged.”

“This is something we’d agree on, Democrats and Republicans. The Constitution is the foundation of our country, but the bedrock that it sits on is legitimate free and fair elections, and the public has to perceive that they are free and fair,” King said. “And I do think there is concern here that there are voices out there to de-legitimize this election.”

“I don’t want to say anything on this program that de-legitimizes the elections because I don’t want the American people to lose faith in our electoral process. If we do, this entire Constitutional republic could come tumbling down,” he added.

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