We received this communication from the campaign of Republican candidate for Secretary of State Paul Pate this morning. As regards voting matters we think his comments were off the mark. Our views, set in red, follow.
Political Soapbox: Secretary of State Candidate Paul Pate Wants Office Depoliticized
Jason Noble, [email protected], 5:56 p.m. CDT August 11, 2014
Republican secretary of state candidate Paul Pate speaks on the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair (Photo: Jason Noble/The Register)
Veritaspac comments:
The article Pate’s campaign sent out was based on a Des Moines Register article that appeared recently. It was sent without further comment from the Pate campaign so we assume they liked the content. So Pate’s position is that he would support increasing access and increasing voter turnout, especially among young people, but emphasized that those efforts must be balanced by security and steps to ensure ineligible voters aren’t allowed to cast ballots. The later part is fine but the effectiveness is pretty much subsumed by the problems created by the silly call for more access and voter turnout. The later particularly not even being his job.
The Secretary of State’s job includes insuring and advocating for the integrity of the vote and on that score Iowa has two key problems – the lack of photo ID being required prior to voting and registering at the voting booth and the emphasis by parties to vote by mail, a playground for fraud, intimidation and other unscrupulous behavior, activities Democrats practice and excel at.
There is no longer any restriction on who can vote early. For Pate to suggest that voter access is in any way a problem, in need of “increasing” given the laxity in the laws and the fact that voting in Iowa by mail begins forty days before the election and populous counties also have satellite voting is just silly and very disappointing.
For Pate to suggest a focus of “access” especially regarding younger voters is in any way necessary is doubly troubling. Consider the “political science” of it. People who are partisan or who have their minds made up will vote. Initiating hectoring programs to get the “leaning” to vote, or for that matter to encourage anyone to presume that their mind should be made up 40 days prior to an election and to go ahead and vote is unbecoming of responsible neutral party and we would argue counter productive to the Republican party as well. In the case of inattentive young people it is the equivalent of encouraging them to take the final exam before the semester is over.
As we have pointed out as regards Scott County registered Republicans, those who vote early tend to split their vote at a higher rate than Republican voters who vote in the booth. With Democrats in Scott County it is just the opposite. Spending time hectoring Republicans to vote early is wasteful. The solid ones will vote anyway and the uncertain ones will hem and haw and throw Democrats a vote because they like their name better. Give them dependable reasons to vote straight ticket and more will vote Republican.
It is the Secretary of State’s political job to advocate for the integrity of the vote and ensure reasonable access consistent with protecting the integrity of that vote. Pate should have limited his voting comments to those. There is already more than enough “access” mechanisms in Iowa and pushing early voting as a general access issue is inconsistent with an informed electorate. R Mall
