Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz’s push to uncover voter fraud has yet to lead to any criminal charges, but he says investigators still are looking into suspected instances of double-voting and non-citizens casting ballots. Schultz, a Republican serving his first term as the state’s top elections official, has made it his top priority to persuade lawmakers to pass a law requiring voters to show identification at the polls. He says doing so would prevent what he calls cheating. But critics, including the Democratic Party of Iowa, have said the state runs clean elections and the identification requirement would disenfranchise voters. Many local elections officials say fraud is not a problem. Against that backdrop, Schultz has promised in recent months that investigations by his office would prove his assertions. He told the Iowa Republican, an online news site, on Feb. 29: “We will be showing that there are cases of voter fraud in Iowa.” At a Republican Party dinner in May, he told activists he was “turning over every stone.” “I can tell you that, very soon, a clear message will be sent that you can’t cheat in Iowa. We are looking at our records,” he said. “I can tell you that we are coming on to something.” But records released by Schultz’s office last week, in response to a request from The Associated Press, show investigators could not find fraud in three cases involving voters whose qualifications were questioned after November’s elections.
In two cases, the voters were found to have been legally registered. In the third, a foreigner living in the U.S. apparently voted improperly but an investigator said he did not have criminal intent. “I would like to emphasize that the individuals reported to our office were not found to have participated in any intentional wrongdoing that could be classified to the level of ‘fraudulent’,” Angela Davis, the staff attorney in Schultz’s office, wrote to AP, which asked for records related to all voter fraud investigations. Davis said the details of those three cases could be released because they have been closed. But she withheld records involving several other cases, saying they’ve been sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and local prosecutors for investigation.
Schultz said in an interview that his office has uncovered potential cases of persons who are not U.S. citizens voting and voters casting ballots in multiple states in the same election. He declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigations. But he said he was confident charges would be announced sometime soon.
Full Article: Iowa elections chief seeks to prove voter fraud.