Iowa elections chief calls out Cruz on mailings to voters

“Matt Schultz is a former secretary of state, he’s the chairman of our campaign, [he] put out a statement saying these mailers are routine”, Cruz said.

On Friday night, images began circulating from an Iowa resident showing a mailer from Ted Cruz’s campaign shaming people into going to caucus on Monday.

In addition, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Saturday that the piece was ‘a standard mailer that folks at the Iowa Republican Party and other get-out-the-vote groups have used to help motivate low-propensity voters’. The paper has the words “official public record at the top”, and also includes actual names of the recipients neighbors. There’s “no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting”, he said.

“Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the roll of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law”, Paul Pate said in a statement released by his office. The man said he had not been planning to caucus, but upon receiving the mailer he was, in fact, persuaded to caucus – for Florida senator Marco Rubio, one of Cruz’s chief opponents. “Caucus on Monday to improve your score”.

He says “if you had told me a year ago that two days out from the Iowa caucuses we would be neck and neck effectively tied for first place in the state of Iowa, I would have been thrilled”.

Less than 24 hours later, in the run up to Monday’s all important Iowa caucus, Cruz found himself under heavy scrutiny after some Iowans complained about a “voter-shaming mailer” sent out by his campaign.

The bottom of the mailer says registration and voter history are public records “distributed by the Iowa Secretary of State and/or county election clerks”.

“These mailers are common practice to increase voter turnout”, Schultz said in a statement.

Cruz, who is appearing at a rally in Sioux City, also spoke to reporters about his challenge to Iowa frontrunner Donald Trump to debate him before the February 1 caucuses.

“And I will apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote”. “Nor does the Secretary of State maintain records related to Iowa Caucus participation”.