STATEMENT FROM SECRETARY OF STATE MAURO ON POPULAR VOTE BILL

DES MOINES – Secretary of State Michael A. Mauro issued the following statement regarding recent discussion of the popular vote bill:

“I caution lawmakers in leading a charge to adopt a resolution that could be detrimental to Iowa and our important role in choosing the President of the United States. Our nation’s current Electoral College system was created to protect less populated states like Iowa to ensure we were included in the process.

“As we know, Iowa plays a very important role not only in the nomination process but also during the General Election. In the past twenty years Iowa has been a battleground state in determining our president. There’s a reason each party’s nominee visited our state days before Election Day – because our state still mattered.

“I believe if this were to play out, it would have a dramatic effect. Under this proposal, it is hard to foresee Iowa maintaining its dominant role and expect candidates to spend their final hours campaigning in our state when they will be focused on capturing the popular vote in much larger states.

“As I see it, toying with our nation’s current system could only have a negative effect on Iowa’s historically important role.”

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