Secretary of State's office reports election misinformation

BY PCC STAFF

DES MOINES - According to an email sent from a staffer at the Iowa Secretary of State's office, state officials have identified two sources of misinformation regarding the November 6th general election.

Lee County Auditor Denise Fraise received an email from Molly Hammer, an attorney with Secretary of State Paul Pate's office informing area election officials of the sources

"It has been brought to our attention that a third-party organization, the Center for Voter Information, has sent out a mailing to some Iowa voters. The mailing includes a letter which states, “This report provides you with a helpful summary of how often you vote and how your voting compares with others in your state.” The Center for Voter Information has assigned each recipient a “voting score"," Hammer wrote.

"Some of the recipients (as) of this morning have informed us that the absentee ballot request form they received either contained inaccurate information or included a return envelope for the wrong county. The Center for Voter Information did not contact the Secretary of State’s Office prior to sending out this mailing, therefore we do not know what processes were used to create the pre-filled request forms."

She gave instructions to the Auditor's office on how to deal with any voter registrations or absentee ballot requests that should have been sent to another county.

Hammer also reported that another effort may be underway under a false name to register voters over the phone.

"Additionally, the National Association of Stated Election Directors (NASED) notified our office that counties in another state are reporting that someone representing themselves as TurboVote has made telephone calls to residents purporting to register them over the phone. The callers are also representing to residents that once they register, they will be provided an absentee ballot, which is not allowed in that jurisdiction. TurboVote (which is part of Democracy Works) does not do this and anyone purporting to do so is categorically not affiliated with TurboVote," Hammer wrote.