The Iowa Republican Party is suing to lift the injunction that has blocked signature verification on Iowa absentee ballots.
A 2017 Iowa law gave election officials authority to reject absentee ballots if the signature on the outside envelopes didn’t match the voter’s other signatures on file. The League of United Latin American Citizens sued. A judge ruled the law could be inconsistently enforced and a court injuction has been in force since 2019.
The Iowa GOP’s lawsuit charges that absentee voting in Iowa lacks the safeguards in place for in-person voting on Election Day, when voters are required to show a photo ID. The Republican National Committee is backing the lawsuit. National party chair Joe Gruters says the RNC is leading the effort to ensure Iowa absentee ballots are cast by the voters who requested them.
A spokesman for the League of United Latin American Citizens says signature verification is an unreliable step to add to ballot cross-checks and the group is considering a legal response to the lawsuit.
