DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top election official has announced a bill that would require voters to show identification at the polls, and Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature have indicated a willingness to pass it into law.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate told reporters Thursday that a voter ID bill was needed to ensure integrity in Iowa’s election system. The assertion comes three months after Pate released a statement calling Iowa “one of the best states in the nation for both voter participation and voter integrity.”
Pate says he believes the system is clean but needs to be kept that way. There is little evidence of fraudulent voting in Iowa.
Pate didn’t provide a copy of the proposed bill but confirmed it wouldn’t allow use of student IDs as valid identification to vote.