Iowa State Association of County Auditors Aligns With the Iowa House to Prevent the Passage of Paper Audit Trails
by Tom Slockett, Johnson County Auditor and Elections Commissioner
The Senate passed verified
audit trails unanimously last session. This was supported by the
Governor, the Secretary of State, the League of Women Voters, the
AARP, and the Des Moines Register, among others. Governor Vilsack
said he would veto any elections legislation that didn't contain
verified audit trails.
In spite
of the unanimous Senate support, Iowa House leadership refused to allow
a vote. The Iowa House and Iowa State Association of County
Auditors (ISACA) allied to block legislative action. They
succeeded. The House, with it's 100 elected state
representatives, and ISACA, with it's 99 elected county auditors,
killed the unanimously supported Senate legislation without a vote and
with no accountability of elected officials. They continue to be
allied to prevent any action in next year's legislature.
While
many auditors have stated that they intend to purchase paper audit
trails in their counties they have never-the-less joined with those
opposed to them in a nearly united front of auditors who appear to
oppose making them mandatory.
While
ISACA continues to
align with the Iowa House to prevent the passage of paper audit trails
in next year's legislative session, there has been no public
accountability, no compilation of the public position of Iowa county
auditors who, by every indication, are, behind the scenes, nearly
united against mandatory paper audit trails for every Iowa vote.
Neither
state representatives or auditors who have worked together to block
this legislation have been held publicly accountable for their actions.
The voters have not been informed whether county auditors or state
representatives support mandatory documentation. Statements such as “I
have no problem with paper audit trails” have been accepted when this
doesn't answer the key question as to whether such a statement
represents support or opposition to mandatory paper audit trails.
It is too bad that not a
single newspaper, radio, or television station has produced a full
compilation of the positions of the decision makers in the House and of
county auditors on this key issue. No news organization has bothered to
ask the 199 people whose organizations killed the bill what each of
their positions is on the unanimously passed Senate bill for mandatory
Voter Verified Paper Audit trails covering each and every Iowa vote.
Why
have elections with paper audit trails been blocked in Iowa and
what are the positions of those who have blocked them? This information
remains unavailable to Iowa voters. Why?
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