Davenport, IA – Republicans in the House and Senate quickly approved the changes over the opposition of all Democratic legislators. The rules are needed to guard against voting fraud.
Gov. Reynolds said election integrity must be protected, claiming the law provides election officials with consistent parameters for Election Day, absentee voting and database maintenance
Democrats said they’re examining their reliance on early voting. In the last election, more than 70% of Democrats voted early.
The law shortens the early voting period to 20 days from the current 29. It also requires most mail ballots to be received by Election Day, rather than counting votes postmarked by Election Day that arrive by noon on the Monday following the election.
Voting sites will close at 8 p.m. rather than 9 p.m., and county election officials are banned from sending out absentee ballot request forms unless requested.
Satellite voting sites also can only be set up if enough voters petition for one, and voters will be removed from active voting lists if they miss a single general election and don’t report a change in address or register as a voter again.