VRM in the States: Iowa

Voter Registration in a Digital Age: Iowa

An appendix from Voter Registration in a Digital Age

• Background
  Motor vehicle registration in Iowa has been fully automated for several years, and the system has experienced no notable problems during this time. State election officials have also recently expressed interest in exploring online voter registration.
• Outcomes
  Director of Elections Sarah Reisetter highlights the automated system's reliability, finding that it leaves "significantly fewer chances for errors" than does a paper-based system. Whereas a paper form can be misplaced, and an envelope can be lost in the mail, system data are secure and easy to track. Ms. Reisetter confirms that automation has also eased the workload of county election officials.
• How Automated Registration Works in Iowa
  A person does business with the Department of Transportation (DOT) by answering the questions of an employee who will copy down her information, and who will ask her if she would like to register to vote or to update an existing registration. If the answer is yes, the interviewer checks a "voter registration" box on his computer screen and asks the visitor for her party affiliation, if any. The visitor then affirms her eligibility and provides an electronic signature.
  
  Each night the DOT system automatically collects data from applications flagged for voter registration and send them to a secure FTP site, where they are collected by the statewide voter registration database system and made available to county auditors for review. These transfers do not normally include digitized signatures, which election officials can instead access in the DOT database if the need arises.

Election Day Registration

• Iowa currently offers Election Day registration.  For more about Iowa's Election Day registration procedures, please visit the Secretary of State's website.