A key republican legislator wants to clamp down on the use of absentee ballots. Representative Janet Metcalf, a republican from Urbandale, will lead the House State Government Committee next year, and she plans to take up the issue in January.Metcalf wants to bar political party officials from handing out absentee ballots. Both major parties in Iowa have launched massive absentee ballot voting efforts in the past few elections.Iowa’s top election official is Secretary of State Chet Culver, who has pressed for broader use of early voting, like absentee ballots.Culver and Metcalf made their comments during taping of the Iowa Public t-v program, “Iowa Press.”
