Iowa lawmakers pass in-person caucus requirement, sending bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds

Republican lawmakers have voted to require caucusing to take place in person, moving forward with a plan that they believe will preserve Iowa's first-in-the-nation status but that has outraged Democrats.

The Senate passed House File 716 Thursday on a 33-16 party-line vote, with every Republican in favor and every Democrat opposed. The House passed the legislation Monday, so the Senate vote sends the bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is expected to sign it.

The legislation is the latest development to raise questions about how the 2024 presidential nominating calendar will play out for both Democrats and Republicans.

Iowa Democrats on Wednesday released a draft plan indicating that the party intends to hold its 2024 caucuses on the same day as Iowa Republicans — in keeping with Iowa law but in potential defiance of the Democratic National Committee's decision to remove Iowa from its first-in-the-nation spot.

More: Iowa Democrats say they will hold 2024 caucuses on the same day as Republicans

At the caucuses, Iowa Democrats would conduct party business and select unbound delegates to county conventions.

But Democrats also intend to run a separate caucus-by-mail process where Democrats would cast presidential preferences. And the results of that process may or may not be announced on Caucus Day.

The Iowa Democratic Party will submit the delegate selection plan to the Democratic National Committee after a 30-day comment period.

Iowa Republicans, meanwhile, have accused Iowa Democrats of replacing the traditional caucus process with a "primary-in-all-but-name." They've said the in-person requirement is needed to preserve the caucuses from the threat of New Hampshire moving its primary ahead of Iowa if Iowa's caucuses too closely resemble a primary election.

Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, called the bill "petty, partisan, unconstitutional and unnecessary."

"The attempts to use state government to dictate to major political parties in this state how they are supposed to select delegates using their caucus processes is I think flagrantly unconstitutional and certainly not the direction our state should be going," Wahls said.

The bill's floor manager, Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, did not speak about the bill other than to describe what it does. But Sen. Jeff Taylor, R-Sioux Center, said there's value in having a caucus rather than a primary.

"The whole idea of a caucus is that you meet in person, face to face," he said. "You get together with your neighbors. … To me, that’s a tradition that’s worth protecting."

More: Iowa Democrats say they will hold 2024 caucuses on the same day as Republicans

How does the in-person caucus legislation work?

The bill says that if an Iowa political party “chooses to select its delegates as part of the presidential nominating process at political party precinct caucuses” and goes first, then the caucuses need to be held in person.

The bill would also allow political parties to set their own deadlines for when Iowans have to be registered members of the party to participate in the caucuses. That would allow Republicans, for instance, to require Iowans to be registered as Republican voters in advance before they can caucus.

Currently, Iowans can register with a political party at the time they go to caucus and still participate.

The original version of the bill would have required anyone wishing to caucus to register with their chosen party at least 70 days ahead.

The bill would not affect Iowa's existing same-day voter registration for voters participating in federal, state and local elections.

The bill also changes the mechanism for choosing a political party's nominee in the case of a primary election tie for state representative or state senator.

The bill would change the process so that party committee members from the precincts within the legislative district would meet to choose between the tied candidates.

More: Why Iowa is leaving a multi-state voter data group intended to ensure election integrity

And it allows Iowa to leave the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, a multistate group formed in 2012 as a way for states to share voter data and more easily remove ineligible voters from voter rolls.

More than half a dozen Republican-led states have left the group over the past year and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced in March that he was pulling Iowa out.

Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said ERIC protects voter integrity by identifying voters who have moved or died, allowing states to remove them from the voter rolls.

"I never want to hear the two words 'voter integrity' again out of the other side of this chamber because what you are doing today in this bill is just the opposite of voter integrity," she said.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa GOP lawmakers pass in-person caucus requirement as Democrats object