Iowa SOS says absentee mailings breached voters’ information

(Cedar Rapids, AP)  Iowa’s elections office has accused county officials who tried to make it easier to vote by mail during the pandemic of illegally breaching voters’ personal information. The assertion by the office of Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, is a boost for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, which is suing three Iowa counties to invalidate at least 70,000 returned absentee ballot request forms. The claim comes ahead of a hearing Thursday in a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign and state and national GOP groups against Linn County Auditor Joel Miller. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate about 50,000 requests for absentee ballots that have been returned since July when Miller’s office sent forms with personal information to about 140,000 registered voters.