[McGavin999]

The problem with someone picking up absentee ballots is that just a casual conversation would reveal who the person voted for. If they were republican, that ballot would probably never make it to the election board.

[Robert A Cook PE]

What irritates/alarms/scares the hell out of me ....

...is the casual, seemlingly "OK" attitude taken by the local democrats.

that this is nothing to worry about and is standard operating procedure to PICKUP AND DELIVERY (some of) the absentee ballots for their region.

NOBODY, but nobody should ever be allowed to handle the ballot for another person without witnesses and "change of custody..."

Gee. We're sorry. We stored all the blank ones over there in that box, (and all the filled out, pre-punched ones for democrats) ones over in that box. And all the returned ones got somehow mixed together.

Guess the republican ones got thrown out last week.

[Iowa Granny]

The problem with someone picking up absentee ballots is that just a casual conversation would reveal who the person voted for. If they were republican, that ballot would probably never make it to the election board.

You have properly framed the issue. I think you should expect the next General Assembly to make some obviously necessary changes to the Iowa Abentee Voting Program.

Iowa law currently allows a 'Volunteer' to drive to someone's home to pick up an absentee ballot that has not been returned by election day. Iowa has a large elderly population, and this provision allows those who requested an Absentee Ballot and then forget to return it, to have their ballot presented to the Auditor by private courier.

During the next election cycle you should expect there to be many more ballots requested than are actually returned.