DeJear for Secretary of State - Aug. 24, 2018

The more people we get participating in our election process this go-around, I think we're going to be better off – we're absolutely going to be better off. We have an incredible plan, that we believe is going to push us forward. You know know a lot of what's counting us out in the primary – no one heard my name; most folks didn't even pronounce it and so they were like ‘here it is, so you can see it.’ Strange funky name, I inherited from my husband. My maiden name was Howard and that's a lot easier to pronounce.

When I think about the secretary of state race the thing that ties all of those other races together and all the issues that are so important to us, is the vote. And if you imagine our democracy being a door, the key of our democracy and the vote – the person who holds that key is our secretary of state. And I'm convinced we need to turn over those keys.

I'm excited about the enthusiasm that I feel as I'm traveling throughout the state, and I'm so happy that I have an opportunity to run for secretary of state. Anybody wanting to do business in our state, has to go through the secretary of state's office first, if they don't they can't get a bank account. And so, we know that, that is a gateway to connect with our small business owners. Right now, that office is more like a rubber stamp – taking people's articles stamping them, quadrupling their fees, and literally saying ‘go about your business’ with those actions.

The commissioner of elections and campaigns, having the ultimate say of deciding who votes; where they vote; and when they vote. We have over 300,000 folks with disabilities in our state, that are eligible to vote but only 5 to 10 percent of them are exercising their right to vote. And so as I'm hearing all of these excuses resounding throughout the 2012 presidential campaign, I'm thinking how do we resolve this? The idea is that we're getting everyone engaged in the process, not just Democrats – we need the Republicans getting engaged; we need libertarians getting engaged. 2016, presidential election, we have 200,000 voters that typically participated in the presidential elections that chose to sit out that year. We don't want that to happen this go around, we want those folks engaged.

We have a secretary of state, whose job is to encourage people to participate in the process. They're held accountable to the National Voter Registration Act; they're held accountable to the National Voting Rights Act – and then those acts we’re supposed to be encouraging people to participate in the process. But when we have that minimal turnout, we know that, there's a gap. Somehow or another the system is broken; it's not fixed because we're not seeing that engagement that's necessary.

I want us to be a state where, the folks knock on that door, and they’re are a candidate, they're not worried about whether or not that person is going to vote, they're worried about whether or not that person's going to vote for them. That's how we truly get back to the essence of the issues, and talk about the values that matter to us, as communities – because right now it's about the process, and the process is overpowering the people. And when that happens, the people end up becoming powerless. Let's give the power back to the people by valuing the vote and getting people engaged in our voter process. We can do that if we have an active secretary of state that has invested interest in seeing people get out the vote

DeJear, D. [Rodger Routh]. (2018, August 24) Deidre DeJear for Iowa Secretary of State [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJhvyCJMg2I] Retrieved on April 15, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2slQigtgy7l7CzrTQFMFoQ.