The two companion bills—HF 590 and SF 413—would shorten the state’s early vote period by nine days, shorten Election Day hours and would limit each Iowa county to one ballot drop box. The bill would also prohibit counties from mailing voters absentee ballot request forms unless they are explicitly requested and requires mail ballots be received by Election Day. Currently, ballots mailed before Election Day can be counted if they are received by the following Monday.

This is being framed as “voter suppression” because these measures ensure that the only voters on election day are actual human beings who are entitled to vote in Iowa.

I’m very much a traditionalist when it comes to voting. If voting is not important enough to you to show up at your designated polling place on Election Day, with picture identification you probably shouldn’t have a say in who gets elected. If you know you won’t be able to make it to the polling place, you need to request, in writing, with a verified signature, an absentee ballot.

My personal view is that “early voting” is a travesty that serves no real purpose but to destroy the impact of Election Day as a civic duty and tell fraudsters how many absentee votes they need to harvest. //

Justice Thomas correctly observed:

One wonders what this court waits for. We failed to settle this dispute before the election, and thus provide clear rules. Now we again fail to provide clear rules for future elections. The decision to leave election law hidden beneath a shroud of doubt is baffling. By doing nothing, we invite further confusion and erosion of voter confidence. Our fellow citizens deserve better and expect more of us. //

My suspicion is that on the eve of the next election an activist judge will rewrite the rules making this bill an exercise in futility. No higher court will intervene. Another election will be corrupted. And all because that the message that elections are just too damned important to be left to the voters must be hammered home at every opportunity.