Secretary of State asks Legislators to reconsider reform bill

Iowa’s Democrat Secretary of State continues to push Republican legislators to reconsider a bill that changes Iowa’s election laws and procedures. Secretary of State Chet Culver would no longer be the state’s commissioner of elections under the bill, which Governor Tom Vilsack has threatened to veto. Millions of federal money for purchasing new voting equipment and training poll workers are at stake. Culver just wants legislators to provide the state matching funds, and forget all the policy issues.Culver says if the state of Iowa doesn’t appropriate one-point-two MILLION dollars in matching funds, it will lose 30-MILLION dollars in federal money. Culver objects to parts of the bill that would close the polls an hour earlier and tighten requirements for absentee balloting.