Iowa State Association of County Auditors  Aligns With the Iowa House to Prevent the Passage of Paper Audit Trails
by Tom Slockett, Johnson County Auditor and Elections Commissioner

The Senate passed verified audit trails unanimously last session.  This was supported by the Governor, the Secretary of State, the League of Women Voters, the AARP, and the Des Moines Register, among others.  Governor Vilsack said he would veto any elections legislation that didn't contain verified audit trails.

In spite of the unanimous Senate support, Iowa House leadership refused to allow a vote.  The Iowa House and Iowa State Association of County Auditors (ISACA) allied to block legislative action.  They succeeded.  The House, with it's 100 elected state representatives, and ISACA, with it's 99 elected county auditors, killed the unanimously supported Senate legislation without a vote and with no accountability of elected officials.  They continue to be allied to prevent any action in next year's legislature.  

While many auditors have stated that they intend to purchase paper audit trails in their counties they have never-the-less joined with those opposed to them in a nearly united front of auditors who appear to oppose making them mandatory.

While ISACA continues to align with the Iowa House to prevent the passage of paper audit trails in next year's legislative session, there has been no public accountability, no compilation of the public position of Iowa county auditors who, by every indication, are, behind the scenes, nearly united against mandatory paper audit trails for every Iowa vote.

Neither state representatives or auditors who have worked together to block this legislation have been held publicly accountable for their actions. The voters have not been informed whether county auditors or state representatives support mandatory documentation. Statements such as "I have no problem with paper audit trails" have been accepted when this doesn't answer the key question as to whether such a statement represents support or opposition to mandatory paper audit trails.

It is too bad that not a single newspaper, radio, or television station has produced a full compilation of the positions of the decision makers in the House and of county auditors on this key issue. No news organization has bothered to ask the 199 people whose organizations killed the bill what each of their positions is on the unanimously passed Senate bill for mandatory Voter Verified Paper Audit trails covering each and every Iowa vote.

Why have elections  with paper audit trails been blocked in Iowa and what are the positions of those who have blocked them? This information remains unavailable to Iowa voters.  Why?

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