July 27, 2020
By: Staff Report, RNC PR
WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Republican National Committee, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the Republican Party of Iowa announced today that they have intervened in LULAC of Iowa v. Pate, a Democrat-aligned lawsuit that seeks to circumvent Iowa state law by weakening important protections on absentee voting. This intervention is part of the RNC’s continued efforts to fight back against Democrats’ assault on the integrity of our elections, says the release.
“Once again, Democrats are up to their old tricks of trying to use the courts to rewrite existing election laws for their political gain and strip important voting safeguards. The responsibility of filling out personal information on absentee ballot applications should rest squarely with the voter, not with third parties that may have malintent. As Democrats are pushing for a rushed transition to a nationwide vote by mail, it is more important than ever to uphold voting protections,” said RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel.
“Democrats are trying to sue their way to victory because they know that in a free and fair election, President Trump wins hands down. Our President knows that the way to protect every American’s ballot is to adhere to election integrity safeguards, just like the protections in place in Iowa. We are fighting back and protecting the integrity of each vote cast in Iowa,” said Trump 2020 General Counsel Matthew Morgan
NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer said, “This is the latest brazen attempt by the Democrats to use the courts to rig the election in their favor. The NRCC is proud to partner with the RNC, NRSC, and Iowa GOP to protect the integrity of every ballot cast.”
“Iowans overwhelmingly support voter ID laws to uphold the integrity of our elections. This lawsuit seeks to take us in the opposite direction and election officials should be upholding current state law, not defying it. The Republican Party of Iowa is proud to stand with other interested parties in fighting this lawsuit in order to protect Iowa’s common sense election laws.” – Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann
In LULAC of Iowa v. Pate, Democrat-aligned groups are seeking to overturn Iowa state law that prevents election officials from filling out omitted or incorrect information on absentee ballots, thus opening the door to potential fraud or ballot manipulation. The RNC, the Trump Campaign, and its Republican partners are seeking to uphold this commonsense voter protection law that requires the individual voter to properly and entirely complete their absentee ballot application in order to receive a ballot, as this responsibility should fall on the applicant alone.
Iowa is already an absentee friendly state that makes it easy for individuals to vote, and state law already provides opportunity for reconciliation if a ballot does have missing information through the proper channels – the voter themselves. Striking down this law would create unnecessary administrative chaos and opportunity for fraud, which could harm Iowans’ confidence in a free, fair and transparent election in November.
Additionally, the RNC today sent a letter to Secretary of State Paul Pate demanding that he order two rogue counties to stop sending absentee ballot applications with the voters’ confidential information prepopulated. As stated in the letter, “This reckless act is not only a severe breach of security (particularly for confidential information like a person’s date of birth and voter identification PIN) but likely violates both the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Iowa law…Requiring each voter to supply their own confidential information, including their date of birth and voter identification number, serves as a ‘check’ to ensure that absentee ballot request forms are completed by the voters themselves, rather than unscrupulous third parties.”