Dozens of felons have cast ballots in recent Iowa elections in direct violation of state law — yet just a handful have been prosecuted, a Des Moines Register investigation has found.
And two of those who were charged told the Register they were misled by election officials who they said urged them to vote.
Since the November 2016 presidential election, at least 114 voters identified by the state as felons have cast provisional ballots in 13 Iowa counties.
At least 27 are no longer on Iowa's felon list, most removed because the state had put them there mistakenly, the Register investigation found.
But most of the remaining 87 felon voters have not been prosecuted for casting illegal ballots, which Iowa law says is punishable by up to five years in prison.
To date, only five have been charged, and only two have been convicted, the Register investigation found.
Prosecutors say they are handcuffed by a state law that requires them to prove that felons intentionally broke the law when they voted or attempted to vote.
"There’s a lot of overall confusion (not only) by the general public but by felons specifically about whether or not they’re eligible to vote," said Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds. County officials there did not pursue charges against two felon voters whose ballots were rejected.
The Register's findings raise new questions about Iowa's felon voting ban, one of the most restrictive in the nation, and the accuracy and fairness of the process used to enforce it. Iowa permanently bars felons from voting unless they successfully petition the governor or president to restore their rights.
An earlier Register investigation found that the state's process for tracking barred felons has serious flaws that have mistakenly kept scores of legitimate voters from having their ballots counted.
Critics see the problems as more evidence that the state needs to automatically restore felons' voting rights once they fulfill their sentence.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has said she would support a constitutional amendment to accomplish just that, but that process takes years.
Some have urged Reynolds to sign an executive order to immediately restore voting rights to felons who do their time. Reynolds' office said that wouldn't permanently solve the problem.
Jessica Reynolds, the Story County attorney, said the confusion about who can vote and who can't stretches back several years, when then-Gov. Tom Vilsack tried to restore felon voting rights.
"This goes back to when we had an executive order restoring rights, and then Gov. (Terry) Branstad reversed that," Reynolds said about the challenges in prosecuting felon voter cases. "A lot of felons think if they're off probation they're eligible to vote, and that's not correct."
After election misconduct charge, felon says he'll never try to vote again
Steven Strand and Fred Swanger contend they were caught up in that confusion.
The two convicted felons are among the five that the Register found who were criminally charged for attempting to vote.
Strand and Swanger told the Register they believed their actions were lawful. They described how precinct workers identified them as being on Iowa's felon list but nonetheless encouraged them to cast provisional ballots.
But their rejected ballots resulted in both facing felony election misconduct charges.
Strand was charged Jan. 9 for his November 2018 vote. His case is pending.
Swanger — prosecuted after his November 2016 vote — said he spent more than $10,000 on legal bills before agreeing in 2017 to a plea deal that dismissed the charge after he spent three weeks in jail.
Many civil rights and legal groups believe Iowa's blanket felon voting ban, which has resulted in widespread voter disenfranchisement, is unjust. Strand and Swanger believe their cases underscore that Iowa's process for enforcing the ban is flawed and confusing.
► Database: Iowa's list of felons ineligible to vote
"I have so much disgust for the legal system," Swanger said. "You try to do the right thing, and then you’re penalized. Even if I get a chance to have my (voter) rights restored, I will never vote again. No."
Winnebago County Auditor Karla Weiss did not respond to questions about the guidance from precinct workers that Strand said he received.
Harrison County Auditor Susan Bonham said Swanger insisted on voting, as he had in previous elections.
"My election workers are instructed that if a voter's name appears on the felon list to allow the voter to make his or her own decision on whether to proceed with voting a provisional ballot or leave the precinct without voting," Bonham said.
Strand and Swanger shouldn't have voted under state law. But legal advocates such as Alison Guernsey from the University of Iowa's criminal law clinic say the situations they describe reflect the widespread confusion that both residents and election officials have with the felon voting ban.
► MORE: A Des Moines Register investigation found systemic and longtime inaccuracies in Iowa’s database of more than 69,000 felons
Guernsey argues that scores of Iowans with even minor criminal infractions are afraid to vote because of fear of consequences like those that Strand and Swanger faced.
The law clinic last year helped dozens of people review their voter eligibility.
SUPPORT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: Your digital subscription, just 99 cents a month, supports quality investigative journalism like this.
"This has left a lot of people in the lurch," Guernsey said. "Many of them don't even try to vote."
A bigger problem
In interviews, the Register found that counties vary greatly in how aggressively they pursue charges against felons who attempt to vote.
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, for example, said his office has not pursued election misconduct charges against voting felons because of state data errors and difficulty in proving they intentionally broke the law.
However, Dallas County convicted Jennifer Leigh Smith, 42, of election misconduct in 2017 after the felon cast a vote in the November 2016 election.
A judge suspended a five-year prison sentence and ordered Smith to pay a $750 fine.
"Each case turns on the particular facts," said Wayne Reisetter, an assistant Dallas County attorney. "In this particular case, the defendant knew she wasn't eligible to vote."
Adam Kenworthy of the Iowa Voting Rights Project said illegal voting by felons stems largely from confusion over the law rather than criminal malice.
Kenworthy's nonpartisan group has helped dozens of Iowans review whether they may legally vote.
"These cases speak to the level of fear and confusion out there," Kenworthy said.
Steven Strand case
Strand, of Forest City, was charged in January with a felony for voting in November’s elections.
The 68-year-old readily admits his 2018 felony conviction on a marijuana charge. But he said he didn’t cast his vote with deliberate malice: He believed election workers were helping him regain his right to vote.
Instead, his ballot was rejected and on Jan. 9 Winnebago County Attorney Kelsey Beenken filed a criminal perjury charge against him.
If convicted, Strand could go to prison.
"I was under the impression that all the paperwork I was given was restoring my right to vote," said Strand, a self-employed farmer who lives on an income of less than $25,000 a year, mostly on Social Security. "But now I have to go to court for perjury?"
Fred Swanger case
Swanger, of Logan, was arrested in January 2017 on a charge of election fraud.
Swanger, now 47 and living in Sioux City, first lost his voting rights because, at the age of 18, he stole quarters from an arcade machine and was convicted of felony theft. He served three years in prison.
His right to vote was restored by Gov. Tom Vilsack's 2005 executive order that automatically restored felon voter rights.
In 2015, Swanger was convicted of possessing firearms as a felon, a felony. He told the Register the guns were for hunting. Authorities found out about the weapons during an investigation into an assault, records show.
Swanger said he believed he was convicted of an aggravated misdemeanor and — after conveying his belief to precinct workers in November 2016 — said he was encouraged to vote provisionally.
The charge for voting misconduct ultimately was dismissed in a plea deal that included three weeks in jail.
"I was walking out, and they (precinct workers) brought me back and said, ‘Do this, do this and do this and everything will be all right,'" Swanger said. "And then for me to do jail time even though this wasn’t my fault? Yeah, I’m pretty shook. This hurts a lot."
More at:.
And two of those who were charged told the Register they were misled by election officials who they said urged them to vote.
Since the November 2016 presidential election, at least 114 voters identified by the state as felons have cast provisional ballots in 13 Iowa counties.
At least 27 are no longer on Iowa's felon list, most removed because the state had put them there mistakenly, the Register investigation found.
But most of the remaining 87 felon voters have not been prosecuted for casting illegal ballots, which Iowa law says is punishable by up to five years in prison.
To date, only five have been charged, and only two have been convicted, the Register investigation found.
Prosecutors say they are handcuffed by a state law that requires them to prove that felons intentionally broke the law when they voted or attempted to vote.
"There’s a lot of overall confusion (not only) by the general public but by felons specifically about whether or not they’re eligible to vote," said Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds. County officials there did not pursue charges against two felon voters whose ballots were rejected.
The Register's findings raise new questions about Iowa's felon voting ban, one of the most restrictive in the nation, and the accuracy and fairness of the process used to enforce it. Iowa permanently bars felons from voting unless they successfully petition the governor or president to restore their rights.
An earlier Register investigation found that the state's process for tracking barred felons has serious flaws that have mistakenly kept scores of legitimate voters from having their ballots counted.
Critics see the problems as more evidence that the state needs to automatically restore felons' voting rights once they fulfill their sentence.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has said she would support a constitutional amendment to accomplish just that, but that process takes years.
Some have urged Reynolds to sign an executive order to immediately restore voting rights to felons who do their time. Reynolds' office said that wouldn't permanently solve the problem.
Jessica Reynolds, the Story County attorney, said the confusion about who can vote and who can't stretches back several years, when then-Gov. Tom Vilsack tried to restore felon voting rights.
"This goes back to when we had an executive order restoring rights, and then Gov. (Terry) Branstad reversed that," Reynolds said about the challenges in prosecuting felon voter cases. "A lot of felons think if they're off probation they're eligible to vote, and that's not correct."
After election misconduct charge, felon says he'll never try to vote again
Steven Strand and Fred Swanger contend they were caught up in that confusion.
The two convicted felons are among the five that the Register found who were criminally charged for attempting to vote.
Strand and Swanger told the Register they believed their actions were lawful. They described how precinct workers identified them as being on Iowa's felon list but nonetheless encouraged them to cast provisional ballots.
But their rejected ballots resulted in both facing felony election misconduct charges.
Strand was charged Jan. 9 for his November 2018 vote. His case is pending.
Swanger — prosecuted after his November 2016 vote — said he spent more than $10,000 on legal bills before agreeing in 2017 to a plea deal that dismissed the charge after he spent three weeks in jail.
Many civil rights and legal groups believe Iowa's blanket felon voting ban, which has resulted in widespread voter disenfranchisement, is unjust. Strand and Swanger believe their cases underscore that Iowa's process for enforcing the ban is flawed and confusing.
► Database: Iowa's list of felons ineligible to vote
"I have so much disgust for the legal system," Swanger said. "You try to do the right thing, and then you’re penalized. Even if I get a chance to have my (voter) rights restored, I will never vote again. No."
Winnebago County Auditor Karla Weiss did not respond to questions about the guidance from precinct workers that Strand said he received.
Harrison County Auditor Susan Bonham said Swanger insisted on voting, as he had in previous elections.
"My election workers are instructed that if a voter's name appears on the felon list to allow the voter to make his or her own decision on whether to proceed with voting a provisional ballot or leave the precinct without voting," Bonham said.
Strand and Swanger shouldn't have voted under state law. But legal advocates such as Alison Guernsey from the University of Iowa's criminal law clinic say the situations they describe reflect the widespread confusion that both residents and election officials have with the felon voting ban.
► MORE: A Des Moines Register investigation found systemic and longtime inaccuracies in Iowa’s database of more than 69,000 felons
Guernsey argues that scores of Iowans with even minor criminal infractions are afraid to vote because of fear of consequences like those that Strand and Swanger faced.
The law clinic last year helped dozens of people review their voter eligibility.
SUPPORT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: Your digital subscription, just 99 cents a month, supports quality investigative journalism like this.
"This has left a lot of people in the lurch," Guernsey said. "Many of them don't even try to vote."
A bigger problem
In interviews, the Register found that counties vary greatly in how aggressively they pursue charges against felons who attempt to vote.
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, for example, said his office has not pursued election misconduct charges against voting felons because of state data errors and difficulty in proving they intentionally broke the law.
However, Dallas County convicted Jennifer Leigh Smith, 42, of election misconduct in 2017 after the felon cast a vote in the November 2016 election.
A judge suspended a five-year prison sentence and ordered Smith to pay a $750 fine.
"Each case turns on the particular facts," said Wayne Reisetter, an assistant Dallas County attorney. "In this particular case, the defendant knew she wasn't eligible to vote."
Adam Kenworthy of the Iowa Voting Rights Project said illegal voting by felons stems largely from confusion over the law rather than criminal malice.
Kenworthy's nonpartisan group has helped dozens of Iowans review whether they may legally vote.
"These cases speak to the level of fear and confusion out there," Kenworthy said.
Steven Strand case
Strand, of Forest City, was charged in January with a felony for voting in November’s elections.
The 68-year-old readily admits his 2018 felony conviction on a marijuana charge. But he said he didn’t cast his vote with deliberate malice: He believed election workers were helping him regain his right to vote.
Instead, his ballot was rejected and on Jan. 9 Winnebago County Attorney Kelsey Beenken filed a criminal perjury charge against him.
If convicted, Strand could go to prison.
"I was under the impression that all the paperwork I was given was restoring my right to vote," said Strand, a self-employed farmer who lives on an income of less than $25,000 a year, mostly on Social Security. "But now I have to go to court for perjury?"
Fred Swanger case
Swanger, of Logan, was arrested in January 2017 on a charge of election fraud.
Swanger, now 47 and living in Sioux City, first lost his voting rights because, at the age of 18, he stole quarters from an arcade machine and was convicted of felony theft. He served three years in prison.
His right to vote was restored by Gov. Tom Vilsack's 2005 executive order that automatically restored felon voter rights.
In 2015, Swanger was convicted of possessing firearms as a felon, a felony. He told the Register the guns were for hunting. Authorities found out about the weapons during an investigation into an assault, records show.
Swanger said he believed he was convicted of an aggravated misdemeanor and — after conveying his belief to precinct workers in November 2016 — said he was encouraged to vote provisionally.
The charge for voting misconduct ultimately was dismissed in a plea deal that included three weeks in jail.
"I was walking out, and they (precinct workers) brought me back and said, ‘Do this, do this and do this and everything will be all right,'" Swanger said. "And then for me to do jail time even though this wasn’t my fault? Yeah, I’m pretty shook. This hurts a lot."
More at:.
