Tuesday, January 17, 2023, host Jason Bermas is joined by independent-newspaper publisher Todd McGreevy to discuss changes proposed to the way we request and use voter-registration lists. Such changes can have an adverse effect on our ability to identify ineligible voters and get them removed from our voter rolls. By “ineligible,” we mean the deceased, the duplicated, and the departed (they have relocated from the jurisdiction in which they remain registered).

Concerning, specifically, the Iowa Administrative Code, such changes would possibly make the process more difficult. Furthermore, we would be required to get permission from the Secretary of State’s office before we can share the lists with anyone else. This is overly-restrictive and puts conscientious citizens in the position of having a single authority in the SOS office tell us how we can use and share this information. This oversteps the language of Iowa Code 48A.39. Should one’s work not meet the Secretary’s criteria, would one be obliged to shack up in an embassy à la Julian Assange? All the more urgent to address the changes to 821-3.2(3) and 821-3.3, which proposes an increase in penalties for violating these rules from a serious misdemeanor to an aggravated misdemeanor. Is the Iowa government discouraging Iowa residents from engaging in good citizenship under threat of penalties under the law and these administrative rules that are subject to interpretation?

Link: Voter Registration Proposed Changes to Limit Citizens’ Access to Voter Rolls in Iowa?

Example: Iowa Admin Code 48A.39 says that voter-registration records can be obtained for a “genuine political purpose” or “bona fide political research.” The change proposed to Admin Rule IAC 821-3.2(2) would change the definition of “political purpose” to “a noncommercial purpose related to the express advocacy of a candidate or ballot issue.” It is not clear that this includes the work of citizen advocates who are trying to help clean the Iowa voter rolls. Since there isn’t a definition of “political research” in Iowa Code 821 Chapter 3, we’re left to wonder whether this includes the ability of, say, independent journalists to research registered-voter rolls. There should be a push made to such proposals as to define, categorically, “political research,” “genuine political purpose,” or “bona fide political research” in relation to voter-roll hygiene so that another push can steer the language away from its draconian implications and toward some straight talk that does not require an interested party being treated as a deputized entity without such concomitant benefits as health-care. Elsewhere, as regards 821-3.3(48A), “Contents of written request” has a change to item N° 9 so that it reads “A written explanation regarding the specific intended use of the list.” Such coy language sounds like it could be used to block legitimate requests from citizens if the State Registrar does not agree with the intended use — even though it is not contrary to Iowa Code 48A.39. Is “research to identify ineligible and duplicate voters” a sufficient explanation?

Resources relating to these proposed changes:

• Description of Voter Registration Commission
  
• Iowa Code section 48A.39 Use of Registration Information.
  
• Current version of Iowa Adminstrative Code (IAC) 821-3
  
• Notice of Intended Action ARC 6772C
  
• Voter registration list requests
  
• Form for ordering a voter list
  

Link: Proposed bylaws change would entrench Republican establishment in South Dakota, opponents say

Just so you know it’s not just Iowa that’s in a benighted state (pun intended), as the South Dakota Republican Party’s State Central Committee is looking to change who gets a say in selecting statewide officers at the party’s convention, the result of a proposed bylaws change which would strip precinct committeemen of their voting rights at the state convention (per author Jason Harward).

Link: Precinct Strategy Discussion

Wherein precinct delegates have been getting bounced by crooked party leaders, with the recent dust up in South Dakota to get rid of all MAGA precinct captains.

Link: Scott County GOP Corruption Exposed: The Jewel Is Tarnished

Memories precinct delegates getting bounced by crooked party-leaders in Scott County during the Ron Paul era reminds one when a Scott County GOP Convention was almost reconvened to make valid the delegates that move forward to Regional and State — bit of a lingering trauma from that rodeo.

Link: Whiteside County Sheriff Booker calls Illinois HB5417 violation of Second Amendment 

Link: Rock Island County Sheriff Darren Hart says HB5471 in Illinois abrogates the Second Amendment, although he stops short of saying he would not enforce the statute

Link: Dr David Hartsuch suing two Iowa medical boards

With local doctor and former state senator David Hartsuch attempting to enforce the right to petition with his lawsuit the points McGreevy discusses in his 4 January 2023 article [directly below].

Link: Petitioning for Redress of the Bamboozle

Link: Noble Lies Are No Excuse for Ignoble Acts by Kathleen McCarthy

Whereas the former link concerns legal language, the latter concerns clear, identifiable footage of what’s happened. The majority of the forty-thousand-some-odd hours of the 6 January 2021 imbroglio at the nation’s Capitol has yet to be released and scrutinized. If not only for a full account of the events of the day, why would such material remain inaccessible?