The Iowa Voter Registration Commission is moving ahead with plans to let all eligible Iowa voters with a state-issued photo I-D register to vote online, but it will be up to the Iowa Department of Transportation to determine just when it can start. Carol Olson, the Deputy Secretary of State in charge of elections, says D-O-T officials expect a new on-line voter registration system to be ready in the first quarter of 2016 — which means it may not be up in time for the 2016 Iowa Caucuses.
Most Iowans are able to go online to renew their driver’s license and they can register to vote during that process, but the D-O-T is developing a separate system that would allow someone who either has a valid Iowa driver’s license or an I-D card issued by the D-O-T to go online, enter their identification number and register to vote at any time, not just when they’re renewing their license.
The websites for the Iowa secretary of state’s office and for Iowa’s 99 county auditors will link to the D-O-T’s online voter registration system, once it’s up and running. Cerro Gordo County Auditor Kevin Kline says county auditors are already getting digital records from the D-O-T each day from Iowans who’ve registered to vote when they renewed their drivers license.
The executive directors of the Iowa Republican and Democratic Parties are members of the Iowa Voter Registration Commission and both voted in favor of expanding online voter registration in 2016.
