Legislators talk about improving Iowa election law

A group of legislators met with election officials today to make sure Iowa doesn’t get tarred like Florida did in the past election. Bob Galbraith of the Iowa Secretary of State’s office said it’s time to thoroughly review the state’s election laws to check for inconsistencies that could put Iowa into re-count chaos. Galbraith was among those who reviewed Iowa’s re-count law in November. Galbraith says legislators should re-write portions of Iowa’s election law to clarify the rules. Carol Olsen, a former deputy Secretary of State, urged lawmakers to force county election officials to undergo extensive training. Lawmakers were also urged to define what a vote is. While Iowa doesn’t use punch card machines that produced those much-discussed “chads”, optical scanners are used in 77 of Iowa’s counties, and there’s no rule as to whether votes should be counted when the ovals are filled in, circled or checked.