Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz has referred nine cases of possible voter fraud to county attorneys for investigation since last October, a spokeswoman for his office said Friday.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
The referrals were prompted either by inquiries from county-level election officials or complaints to the secretary of state’s voter fraud hot line, spokeswoman Erin Rapp said. All involve city elections held in 2011. The investigations are now under way, which limits the information about them that can be released publicly.
Schultz, a Republican, has made cracking down on voter fraud a key focus for the secretary of state’s office, to which he was elected in 2010.
Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would require Iowans to show a state- or university-issued photo ID in order to vote, a measure supported by Republicans but sharply opposed by Democrats. The bill failed to pass a key legislative deadline last month, dimming its prospects for passage this year.
Republicans generally argue voter-ID legislation is needed to reduce fraud and ensure security at the ballot box. Democrats, conversely, contend the requirements are meant to stifle voter turnout, and that the voter-impersonation fraud they purport to prevent is virtually nonexistent.
In comments to a Republican news outlet earlier this week, Schultz suggested voter fraud was an issue in Iowa, and that he would soon provide proof of its existence.
“We will be showing that there are cases of voter fraud in Iowa,” Schultz told the Iowa Republican website in a story published Thursday.
It is not clear, however, whether the complaints now being investigated involve fraud that would be addressed by the ID legislation. Rapp, the spokeswoman, declined to describe the nature of the complaints or where in Iowa they came from, citing the need to keep ongoing investigations confidential.
Schultz’s comments to the Iowa Republican, which he made during a panel discussion on the voter ID issue on Wednesday, seem to contradict earlier statements in which he suggested the existence of voter impersonation fraud could not easily be proven, and that his legislation aimed to close a loophole that could allow fraud.
“What’s important is that we close a loophole,” Schultz said during a news conference announcing his voter-ID legislation in January. “We can’t prove that it’s happening or that it’s not unless we have video camera surveillance, which we do not have at the polls.”
The Iowa Democratic Party seized on the apparent contradiction in a statement released Thursday, contending that Schultz’s comments to the Iowa Republican were evidence of his desperation to pass a voter-ID law.
“It doesn’t make sense that cases of voter fraud would appear suddenly, especially after he has freely admitted that voter fraud is not a problem in Iowa,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky said in the statement, which also called on Schultz to release more detail about the investigations.
