Iowa Voters

Last week Secretary Culver trumpetted his plan to accept email ballots from military voters but neglected to mention that email ballots are not secret ballots. Now his press spokesman adds that Iowa does not even recommend email balloting. They merely allow it.

Here’s spokesman Casey Sinnwell at the Iowa Secretary of State’s office:

It is important to understand that the email voting option for active duty military personnel involves, at the choice of the voter, the express waiver by that voter of ballot secrecy.

It remains the policy of this office that active duty military personnel should make use of the standard mail-in absentee ballot voting process wherever possible.

If it was “important to understand” this fact, how was it omitted from the original press release?

While most of Iowa’s press repeated the AP story linked above, the U of Iowa’s student paper (where I once worked!) actually contacted a medic in Iraq:

Spc. Jason Weirather, an Iowa National Guard medic stationed in Iraq, said, as a soldier, he finds this new method more convenient, but, as a civilian, he is leery about the possible risks involved. . . .

“I’m wondering what’s stopping some nefarious person from reading my ballot or worse, changing my vote.”

The 25-year-old said if he votes overseas, he will continue to use the Postal Service because he doesn’t fully trust that e-mail will be secure.

The secret ballot has been a key part of our elections for a hundred years. With the Secretary of Defense calling his critics “appeasers”, soldiers might want to hold on that secrecy