Iowa's top elections official is proposing a law to require political parties and campaigns to turn in voter registration forms they collect within a week.
The measure backed by Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate is a response to the Iowa Democratic Party's handling of dozens of incomplete forms that were submitted to Johnson County elections officials before the Nov. 8 election, after weeks of delay.
Pate spokesman Kevin Hall says the delay "could have dramatically suppressed those Iowans' right to vote" and was inexcusable.
But Democrats are accusing Pate's office of exaggerating the impact of the delay, which they said shouldn't have affected anyone's ability to cast ballots. They say they were trying to contact voters to have them correct errors on the forms before submitting them.
