Hawkeye Reporter

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law on June 9 which seeks to fix flaws in Iowa election policy related to absentee voting and third party ballot collection.

The law will strictly limit third parties attempting to collect and submit the ballots of other people, thereby banning ballot harvesting.

“It’s our duty and responsibility to protect the integrity of every election,” Reynolds said earlier this year , according to the Epoch Times.

The law will only allow a family member or someone who lives in the same home as a registered voter to submit an absentee ballot as a third party. Disabled voters may designate a delivery agent to submit their ballots. Delivery agents cannot submit more than two ballots and must provide a receipt to the voter.

The Gazette recently reported that this measure is a technical bill, meaning that it fixes several smaller parts of existing election law. In addition to banning ballot harvesting, the law will change how trustees are elected and address third party ballot submissions from caretakers of the elderly.

Poll data from the Honest Elections Project shows that 66% of voters support increasing protections on absentee voting, including a voter ID requirement to vote absentee.

The data also shows that 64% of voters, including 51% of Black and 66% of Hispanic voters as well as 59% of urban and 61% of independent voters, want to increase voting safeguards that mitigate fraud – not decrease them.