Election Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, President Trump was rightly criticized for dodging a question about the peaceful transfer of power. Instead, Trump criticized mail-in ballots and rejected the premise that he will lose.

No, that doesn't mean that he is planning some sort of coup, but it is important for any President to choose their words very carefully.

The same is true for partisans on the other side whipping up fear that our democracy is in jeopardy or that the ballots will not be counted. Even worse is the rhetoric setting the stage to delegitimize any future Trump victory.

We now hear full-blown conspiracy theories. Let me mention a few. A group of Biden supporters conducted a war game speculating that the President will not leave office without a Biden landslide, questioning what the military would do.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stepped in with a simple civics lesson. The U.S. military has no role in the elections, he said.

Democrats have doubled down on this debunked theory that the Postal Service is plotting with Trump to disrupt the election mail. The Postal Service does not answer to the President of the United States. It has plenty of capacity to deliver election mail. Plus, the Federal Government doesn't run elections; the 50 States run those elections.

A key goal of Russian ``active measures,'' dating back to the Cold War, has been to get Americans to doubt their government, its leaders, and democratic institutions. Let's not do Russia's dirty work for them. No American should be questioning our free and fair elections.

Now to my State of Iowa. Our people who have requested absentee ballots will have ballots mailed to them starting on October 5. Remember to fill it out completely, including your driver's license or voter PIN number, and mail them to your county auditor well before election day but not later than the day before.

Your ballot can be tracked on the secretary of state's website. Check out where your ballot is.

I have great faith in Iowa's election officials and our postal workers. Iowans who vote in person or absentee can be assured that your vote will count--the same as any election.

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