Shorter Robert Dopf Interview
Candidate for Secretary of State Robert Dopf wants to address two aspects of elections that he sees as potential points of abuse. The first problem is absentee ballots. He sees them “spiraling out of control” as both parties use them to roll up their votes before election day. He fears fraud will eventually occur and he says this is the top election-related concern of federal prosecutors across the nation.
Dopf wants to return to the days when absentee ballots were for, um, absent voters–people on trips or unable to go to the polls for legitimate reasons. Currently Iowa has no restrictions on my ability to get an absentee ballot. He did not explain how he would enforce this if he got the law changed. What if my imaginery business trip is cancelled after I send back my completed absentee ballot? Who is to say whether my health keeps me from voting at the polls? Can we predict those November ice storms in time to decide if it is safe to walk into the polls? I agree with Dopf, but I wonder if we can really put this cat back into the bag. I hope he elaborates on this.
Dopf’s second issue is paperless voting machines. He said paperless voting machines have sneaked into our polls the way slot machines sneaked into our convenience stores. He quoted Iowa City’s Prof Jones regarding the need for voter verified paper ballots, and said he wanted SF 351 to be passed by the legislature. He also wants to see the source code for electronic voting machines and (I think) he endorsed federal legislation that would accomplish that goal. Dopf is looking at possible fraud here, too, as with absentee ballots. (He is not merely concerned with poor quality machines that sometimes lose votes and sometimes show more votes than voters. He hardly mentioned machine error rates, which are astonishingly high.)
Thirdly, Dopf criticized the way Governor Vilsack restored the right to vote for all Iowa felons last summer, saying it should have gone through the legislature. He said our previous system was working well enough, but did not say he would have opposed Vilsack if the Governor had gone through the legislature. In general Dopf apparently believes in restoring the voting rights of felons.
To see the whole WHO radio interview by Jan Mickelson, read the post below this one.