New voter rules that Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz created in July face a hurdle at the courthouse and a hurdle at the Capitol. Polk County Judge Mary Pat Gunderson is considering legal arguments over whether to allow Schultz to move forward with what he is calling emergency rules, and the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee is scheduled to meet today to consider taking action on those same rules. If the voting rules are upheld, Schultz would be allowed to purge certain voters from Iowa’s voter registration list, and it would be easier to report voter fraud. Schultz, a Republican, approved the rules in July without public input, saying he had to act before the November election to ensure that noncitizens don’t vote. Schultz has asked the legislative committee to approve the rules permanently. The group has little authority to stop the rules from taking effect if Gunderson finds that Schultz had the legal authority to create them.
The committee can move forward with a more formal process that allows for public comment and hearings before making the rules permanent. The panel, made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, is meeting today, with the rules on the agenda for 1 p.m. One of the new rules would allow Schultz — a former member of the Council Bluffs City Council who attended the Creighton University Law School — to seek the removal of voters from Iowa’s registration database by comparing it against a State Department of Transportation list and a federal immigration list.
Full Article: Iowa’s new voter rules face scrutiny – Omaha.com.