A recent bill in the Iowa House of Representatives has garnered some attention.

Representative for District 23 Ray Sorensen says that the Ways and Means Committee Bill is geared at keeping Iowa’s first in the nation status when it comes to election caucuses. He mentions that there are three major pieces to understand in the bill, the first of which is that to participate in a precinct caucus, individuals must do so in person. Sorensen adds that this would keep Iowa’s caucuses as the first electoral event leading up to general elections, by keeping the system as a caucus. If mail-in voting were to be allowed, it would become a primary instead,

He says that New Hampshire prides itself on being the first presidential primary, and even has a law that would require them to be the first primary. So if Iowa’s initial electoral event became a primary, New Hampshire would move to jump ahead. Sorensen tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the second thing to know about the bill is how it keeps things even for both parties.

“Another thing this bill does, it requires folks to declare their party status 70 days before the caucuses, and this is to limit bad actors attempting to meddle in the opposing party’s caucus. You know, Democrats don’t want Republicans meddling in their primary caucuses, just like Republicans don’t want Democrats meddling in theirs.”

Sorensen explains the final part of the bill to understand is that it removes Iowa from the Electronic Registration Information Center. He adds that several key states have left that registration, stopping their sharing of their voter information, and making it a less effective tool in maintaining voter rolls, and that Iowa’s Secretary of State has other tools that would allow him to maintain the state’s voter registration list.