[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 138 (Tuesday, August 4, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S4679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ABSENTEE VOTING

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, Iowa's secretary of state Paul Pate 
will mail an absentee ballot request form to every registered Iowa 
voter for the November election. This is a request form, not a ballot, 
being mailed out to everybody.
  Iowa's current absentee ballot system allows anyone who wants to vote 
by mail the option to do so. Just send in the request form when you 
receive it, or you may download it online, but if Iowans prefer to vote 
in person, that remains their choice.
  There has been a lot of misinformation claiming that some massive, 
Federal intervention is needed to allow citizens to vote by mail. This 
isn't true in Iowa or elsewhere. Every State has vote-by-mail, and 16 
States ask for a reason, such as being over 65, for example, but most 
have waived or loosened this requirement.
  Some groups are now using the pandemic to push for a Federal mandate 
on States to adopt a new, universal vote-by-mail system overnight. It 
took 5 years when Washington State implemented voting by mail. 
Requiring every State to replace its current voting system with a whole 
new, centralized, mail-only system this close to our November election 
is a recipe for disaster. In such a system, every registered voter, 
including those who have died or moved away, would automatically be 
mailed a ballot with no voting in person.
  Every Iowan who wants to vote absentee in November can do so, and 
those who want to vote in person can also do so safely. It is a voter's 
choice and should remain so
  I yield the floor.

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