“To the best of my knowledge, we will be one of the first who’s truly doing online voter registration,” said Pate, who challenged Iowans to use the new option to “step up” in the leadoff state in choosing the next president to raise registration from the current 77 percent closer to 100 percent.
“They need to step up and be a part of our elections process, they need to be the people who are out there voting,” he said. “We’re the first-in-the-nation caucuses. They need to be there so their voices are heard. It’s a very important role.”
The highest general-election turnout in Iowa occurred in November 2012, when 1,589,951 Iowans cast ballots, while the highest turnout percentage was 80.24 percent of the registered voters who participated in the November 1992 general election, according to data posted on the Secretary of State’s website.
Thursday’s announcement was made on Constitution/Citizenship Day and marked a joint project with the state Department of Transportation whereby DOT and state elections officials use the transportation agency’s database to allow residents with government-issued identification to register to vote online.
Under the system being established by Pate’s office, Iowa residents seeking to register to vote online will be able to sign in on the Secretary of State’s website or their county auditor’s website. About 93 percent of eligible Iowans are believed to have either a driver’s license or ID card, and Pate said additional steps and training are being undertaken to accommodate the other 7 percent who may be elderly, handicapped or face some other challenge in participating in the voting process.
Technological advances that have made online registration possible also are aiding in state efforts to protect the integrity of the voting system against fraud, said Pate.
Nearly two-thirds of county auditors currently have electronic notebooks with the latest data that can be cross-checked with DOT records and other information to meet challenges posed by a system that allows same-day registration and now has more than half the ballots cast as absentee by eligible Iowans. “We need to get it to all 99 counties” heading into the 2016 election cycle, he told reporters.
Pate was on hand for a naturalization ceremony at the federal courthouse where U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose swore-in 66 new U.S. citizens who immediately were given the opportunity to become registered voters if they so chose.
Iowa has been “very, very aggressive” in taking steps to boost citizen involvement by opening absentee voting 40 days before an election and allowing same-day registration at the polls on Election Day.
Even so, Iowa’s elections commissioner said he senses complacency among Iowans given that only 2-4 percent of the eligible voters in some precincts turned out to case ballots in recent school-board elections. “That’s dismal. That’s not acceptable,” Pate said. Iowans I think are better than that and I want to challenge them to step up.”
©2015 The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
