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Iowa Supreme Court rules county auditor can pursue lawsuit over election security

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October 11th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously ruled the Linn County Auditor can pursue his lawsuit that questions the security of Iowa’s voter registration system. In 2019, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, a Democrat, alleged the state’s computerized database of registered voters is potentially vulnerable to cyber threats. Last year a district court dismissed Miller’s lawsuit on the matter, but the Iowa Supreme Court says Miller has the right to go to court and get answers about the security of Iowa voter registration lists.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, says first and foremost, he wants to assure Iowa voters that Iowa’s election systems are secure. Pate says in the years since Miller’s complaint was filed in 2019, the state has installed robust cybersecurity measures in its election systems.

You may recall Linn County Auditor Joel Miller was the Democrat who ran against Secretary of State Paul Pate in 2022 and Miller questioned how Pate had spent eight million dollars to update Iowa’s computerized voter registration system. Pate, a Republican who also lives and voted in Linn County, won that race with about 60 percent of the vote.