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ACLU says thousands of challenges filed to Iowa voters’ registrations
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Iowa’s secretary of state and the American Civil Liberties Union have sent letters to county auditors, reminding them they are in the three month period when they cannot respond to challenges seeking removal of names from Iowa voter registration lists. Federal law says such challenges must be tabled within 90 days of an election.
State election officials say a non-partisan vendor that monitors activity on voter registration lists reports Iowa county auditors have continued to process voter registration challenges.
Rita Bettis Austen, legal counsel for the ACLU of Iowa, spoke with reporters earlier this afternoon. “We sent (our) letter because we were contacted by impacted voters who learned they had been a part of some of these mass challenges and that led us to investigate,” Bettis Austen said.
The ACLU has confirmed the registrations for “thousands” of voters in Johnson, Muscatine and Pottawattamie Counties have been challenged and some Iowans have had their voter registration cancelled in error. “It is deeply concerning to us that auditors may have improperly removed some Iowa voters based on that Secretary of State letter,” Bettis Austen said, “and one of the things that our letter reminds auditors of is the fact that they need to restore those voters who have been improperly removed due to those challenges.”
The Council Bluffs Nonpareil and KETV have reported a local man walked into the Pottawattamie County Auditor’s office in August and challenged whether over six-hundred registered voters still lived in the county.
Voters who discover they’ve been removed from the registration list can still register and vote at their county auditor’s office or at their precinct on Election Day if they show proof of their current home address on things like a utility bill, a paycheck or the address listed on their photo ID.
