The Iowa Supreme Court has issued what’s called a “stay” — so a district court judge’s recent ruling on absentee ballot request forms sent to voters in Woodbury, Linn, and Johnson Counties is unlikely to into effect before the election.
On Monday, a district court judge issued a temporary ruling that could have meant thousands of absentee ballot request forms in those three counties might have been valid for this year’s election. The Iowa Supreme Court’s action sets that ruling aside, but the court will consider responses through the close of business Thursday from the Democratic groups that filed that lawsuit.
The auditors in Woodbury, Johnson, and Linn Counties mailed forms that included the voter’s address and voter ID number. Other district court judges sided with Republican groups and ruled the forms sent by auditors in those three counties violated the Secretary of State’s order that only blank forms be mailed to voters.
The auditors in Woodbury, Johnson, and Linn Counties have been notifying voters to re-submit their absentee ballot requests if they used the forms that have been the subject of these lawsuits.