DES MOINES, Iowa — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the national and state organization, sent letters to all 99 county auditors in Iowa and the Iowa Secretary of State’s office to remind officials of state and federal election laws.

This comes after the ACLU of Iowa found three counties recently saw mass voter registration challenges: Johnson, Pottawattamie and Muscatine counties.

“We sent this letter because we were contacted by impacted voters who learned that they had been a part of some of these mass challenges and that led us to investigate,” said Rita Bettis Austen, the legal director for the ACLU of Iowa. “We were able to get confirmation and there had been some reporting about mass challenges in three Iowa counties that we noted in the letter.”

Election law in the state deems says that there will be no processing of voter registration challenges 70 days prior to the election. Federal law says that there shall be no challenges of this type 90 days prior to the election.

Pottawattamie County Elections Administrator Marilyn Kennedy told WHO 13 News on Tuesday that on August 28 a gentlemen came in with over 600 voter registration challenges. The county sent out 605 letters to voters, both to the Iowa addresses listed and the addresses they allegedly moved to out of state. Of the 605, 179 responded saying that they had, in fact, moved out of state or county and asked to be removed. Which left 422 not responding to the letter. Kennedy said she expects guidance to come down from the Pottawattamie County Attorney and the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office.

You can view the ACLU of Iowa’s press release here that includes an email sent on October 23 by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office to all 99 county auditors and county attorneys reminding of the 70-day window, and the specifics about challenging voter registration in a 70-day window.

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