Sioux City Times

Former Sen. Rick Bertrand is suing both Woodbury County and its auditor, Pat Gill, in an effort to halt plans for mail-in voting in June.

Gill has encouraged voters to mail their ballots to the county versus voting at a polling place to reduce the spread of COVID-19. He said that there will be two locations open for in-person voting in Sioux City for the June 2 primary election.

Bertrand, whose tenure in the State Senate ended in 2018, filed for a temporary injunction against the stay-at-home-and-vote plan. He said to Souixlandproud.com that voting by mail is “not what we’ve done in the past, that’s not historically what we’ve done. I believe that this action will cause some type of voter suppression within Woodbury County.”

A registered Republican, Bertrand said that he is concerned that mail-in voting will hurt Republicans in the primary. According to the Sioux City Journal, the lawsuit filed by Bertrand claims that “by limiting vote centers, Gill, a registered Democrat, would be putting Republicans and nonparty Independents at a significant disadvantage.”

He also noted that with two polling places there may be overcrowding and that some may choose to not vote.

Bertrand wants the stay-at-home vote plan halted and reviewed.

Susan Steward, Chair of the Woodbury County Republicans, echoed Bertrand’s concerns to Siouxlandproud.com.

“If you have one city site, and you do have people that want to vote live, you’re going to have a crowd at that city site. I don’t know how you would line up 50 people," Steward said. 

Meanwhile, the chair for Woodbury County Democrats Jeremy Dumkrieger noted to Siouxlandproud.com that the coronavirus pandemic impacts every voter. 

“This is a different year. This is not about partisan politics. This is about keeping people safe," he said. 

Gill told the Sioux City Journal that voters have already asked for 9,000 ballots.