March 28, 2024

Review finds 15 errors on felon list for 1 small Iowa county

IOWA CITY (AP) — State officials are confirming that 15 cases in one small Iowa county were mistakenly recorded as felony convictions on the list they use to identify ineligible felon voters.

The Associated Press reviewed all 359 Carroll County entries as part of an investigation into the error-riddled list, which has been blamed for causing confusion and wrongly disenfranchising eligible voters.

The AP found that 15 of the cases — or more than 4 percent — were misdemeanor convictions that did not result in the loss of voting rights. They included crimes such as drug possession, drunk driving and domestic assault.

Judicial branch spokesman Steve Davis said 11 of the 15 cases were incorrectly coded as felonies by court officials and have been corrected. He said the other four aren’t felonies, either, and that he is looking into the source of the errors.

The AP chose Carroll County, which has a population of roughly 20,000 people, for review because it’s representative of many of Iowa’s 99 counties.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced last month that his staff would take steps to correct errors on the felon list before the 2020 presidential election. He said staff members have started reviewing each of its 103,000 entries.