Politics

Judge Orders An Iowa County To Invalidate 50,000 Absentee Ballot Requests

(Photo by Eric Engman/Getty Images)

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
Font Size:

An Iowa judge ordered 50,000 absentee ballots to be invalidated Thursday after ruling the Iowa elections commissioner overstepped his authority by pre-filling the ballots with voters’ information.

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller issued 140,000 absentee ballots in July that were already pre-filled with voters’ personal information, such as their date of birth and most importantly, voter identification numbers, according to the Associated Press (AP). Miller said he wanted to make it easy for voters to vote absentee during the pandemic, per the same report.

However, Judge Ian Thornhill ruled that Miller’s mailing of the ballots violated a “clear directive” from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, who said absentee ballots forms must be blank when sent to voters, according to the AP. Thornhill has ordered Miller to notify voters who received the pre-filled ballot that their ballot cannot be processed. Instead, they can either vote in person on Election Day or request a new absentee ballot. Miller has agreed to send out new blank forms.

COLUMBUS, OH - APRIL 28: Ohio residents who qualify cast their votes in person at the Franklin County Board of Elections headquarters on the final day of the the Primary Election on April 28, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. The election which was postponed on March 17, is almost exclusively mail in or absentee. The only residents allowed to vote in person are those who are disabled, have no permanent residence, or who requested a ballot by mail but never received it. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)

COLUMBUS, OH – APRIL 28: Ohio residents who qualify cast their votes in person at the Franklin County Board of Elections headquarters on the final day of  the Primary Election on April 28, 2020 (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)

The ruling comes after the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law that prohibits auditors, like Miller, from filling in voters’ voter I.D numbers, according to the AP. If a voter left that portion of the ballot blank, auditors are supposed to contact the voter and have them fix it themselves

Miller and elections commissioners in Johnson and Woodbury counties said contacting each voter who leaves the I.D blank would’ve been a tedious task and claimed that the new law did not block them from doing so.

However, the Trump campaign and state and national Republican Party groups filed lawsuits against the three counties to try and invalidate all absentee ballots that were pre-filled, per the AP. They claim requiring voters to fill in their own information acts as a safeguard against voter fraud. (RELATED: Trump Campaign Sues New Jersey Over Mail-In Ballots)

Thornhill said the Trump Campaign and other Republican groups demonstrated the likelihood of being harmed, noting not all Iowa counties have the money to send out pre-filled absentee ballots. This means that voters in counties that do not receive pre-filled ballots are more likely to have their ballot rejected if election commissioners cannot get in contact with them to have them add missing information.

Another hearing is set for Friday in the Woodbury County case.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel