On a 90 degree afternoon, a small group of residents came to meet State Auditor Rob Sands at Celebration Park. Arriving at noon, Sands spent an hour speaking to and answering the questions of area residents.

Sands and Deputy Auditor Gina Edler discussed some of the changes in laws that applied to all auditors in the state. The two agreed on several issues concerning the new voting laws and the continual changing of the laws. Sands said that now the state can come in and take over the local Auditor's office if they feel there are any violations, Edler pointed out that the auditors can now be fined $10,000, and no other official in the county can be charged like that. Sand said, "and for what? There isn't an issue." Edler said that the auditors have said, "Don't do this, we are doing our job and we proved that we've done our job, and they came down harder. Come and do our job," Edler invited lawmakers. Edler is in charge of running the elections each year and has been doing so for the last 13 years. The Secretary of State, Paul Pate oversees the Iowa elections.

Part of Edler's job each year is to first make sure that she is up on all of the new laws that affect the elections, She's the one that makes sure that ballots are designed correctly, mailed out with enough time to have it mailed back, and that any eligible voter can vote. She is also in charge of gathering all of the items that every voting precinct in the county will need on election day. Paper clips, ink pens, pens for the ballots, all of the directions from booting up the voting machines to shutting them down at the end of the day.

Along with all of that, she trains all of the election workers for election day. She walks everyone through the day. Showing them the instruction book and what happens from the time they arrive until the time they leave. Preparing for election day would be like taking every student in the school district on a field trip, packing snacks, and lunches, first aid kits, getting the buses ready, lining up drivers, and making multiple stops. The caveat is that NOTHING can go wrong. If it does, you could be fined $10,000.

The problem as lawmakers saw it, as steps were taken to make the election "easier" for voters that were not legal, In one county part of the ballot was filled out or voters before they received it, which is not legal. In several counties ballot, drop-off boxes were created for ballots to be dropped off and regulations are now in place for those. To make sure that everything is on the up and up, state lawmakers have passed legislation to impose fines or criminal penalties on election officials for violating rules. In Iowa, officials now face a fine of up to $10,000 for a "technical infraction" of election rules as part of a new law.

Sands said that Iowa doesn't have a problem with election fraud and cited a report commissioned by then Secretary of State Matt Shultz which investigated voter fraud.in Iowa, Sands said, Shultz spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate voter fraud.which only resulted in 4 cases.*

The two briefly discussed the funds that are made available through the America Rescue Plan. There is some confusion as to how these funds can be used. Sands explained that if there are projects that are related to preventing the spread of COVID. He pointed out things for example, like enclosing the pavilion at Celebration Park, and bringing in high-speed wireless abilities to the park could be considered a project that would fall under the ARP program. He said that providing outdoor workspaces with wireless abilities in outside areas would qualify. Anything that makes the outside gathering more feasible during this time of COVID and helping to prevent transmission of the virus, is on the table right now. He pointed out that doing something like that might also benefit the town and make it more appealing to those wanting to move to Vinton.

Sand was not a fan of the surplus that Iowa has in the bank. With a population of 3,190,369, the state has a surplus in the bank of $305.5 million. Sand thinks that a surplus is great, but he wonders what the surplus is being held for. He also believes that the state didn't manage federal funds well. He feels that these funds should be used, to benefit the residents. Whether it's giving money to restaurants that are struggling or helping other small businesses during this pandemic.

He spoke about going after the University of Iowa Board of Regents. "Sometimes you have to hold people up by the scruff of the neck to set an example to everyone else," Sands said. The Auditor's office had requested documents from the university and they had refused to provide them. He said a subpoena was issued, and the Board of Regents said that they weren't going to honor it. He then said to them, "Here's your court date." The case went to the District Court where the Auditor won. The Board of Regents appealed, taking the case to the Iowa Supreme Court, where the Auditor also won. He said it's part of deterrence so that others don't try the same thing.

The seal or the Auditor's office includes a dog guarding a treasure's chest and the key is under the dog's paw. He said that while his office is trying to be a watchdog, it's also trying to partner at the local level.

The Public Innovation and Efficiency program (PIE) is part of the duties of his office. Sands shared that the program has had submissions from Benton County, the Benton County Sheriff's Office, the cities of Belle Plaine, Van Horne, Walford and Urbana. It's a program Sands said that has been around to promote efficiency, but hadn't been utilized. The idea is that cities and counties in Iowa can come up with ways to save money by doing more with less. Sometimes the project might be as easy as moving furniture away from the heat vents so that the heat can circulate better in offices. Sometimes it's more complicated. He sighted solar programs might be on the list. The idea is for communities to come up with cost-saving ideas, implement them and then be able to teach other cities or counties, ways to save money. For the best performing counties and cities, they are recognized with a pie from the Auditor's office.

The office is looking for "PIE" recipes, recipes to save money. They are looking for ways that communities can promote and create money-saving tips. The Auditor's office will be recognizing the best plans that are submitted with a pie delivery.

Sand spent an hour with Vinton residents before taking off to his next stops.


*Voter Fraud Investigation by Matt Schultz

The final cost was $150,000 according to a 2013 Huffington Post story

In 2012 Schultz directed $280,000 toward voter fraud.

The Huffington Post said that only 5 guilty pleas resulted.

The 2014 report from this investigation can be seen here.

The finding was that in Iowa that year, "DCI found evidence that 117 illegal votes have been cast and 17 cases are still currently being investigated out of only 238 investigations. County attorneys have the discretion over whether to prosecute these cases."

147 voters were non-voters of those 77 were found to be actionable cases, and 70 were citizens.

10 were charged, 56 were not.

5 were waiting on the county attorney

6 were still under investigation by the DCI

There were the following felon Investigations:

68 felons were investigated for criminal prosecution.

16 individuals were charged by county attorneys,

37 have not yet been charged by county attorneys, and four cases are still being investigated by DCI.

The remaining 11 individuals cast provisional ballots as they were thought to be felons at the time of voting. Eight of these individuals had their provisional ballots counted and three of the ballots were rejected. After learning that three ballots were incorrectly rejected, the Secretary of State's office directed DCI to review all provisional ballots that were rejected for reason of felony conviction cast in the previous two years. As a result of that subsequent review, an additional nine individuals were determined that their rights should be restored. Due to DCI's work, the Secretary of State's office has restored the voting rights of all 20 of these individuals.

County Attorneys charged 16

Cases referred to County Attorneys by the DCI but rejected were 37

4 cases were still under investigation.

There were 23 other cases of Election Misconduct

County Attorney charged one

Cases referred by the DCI to County Attorney but no charges filed were 14

1 awaited a County Attorney decision

7 cases were still under investigation by the DCI

773 addresses could not be confirmed as required by law.

91 were resolved

682 were not

There were 100 cases found of double voting. In Iowa as well as the following states:

Arizona (19)

Arkansas

Colorado (38)

Georgia

Illinois (9)

Indiana

Kansas (2)

Nevada

North Carolina

Ohio (15)

Oklahoma (3)

Pennsylvania (3)

South Carolina (2)

Washington (4)

Comments

Submit a Comment

Please refresh the page to leave Comment.

Still seeing this message? Press Ctrl + F5 to do a "Hard Refresh".