As political campaigns continue to heat up, so do concerns about the voting process in Iowa. It's a battleground state for the presidential candidates and some people are questioning whether ballots are being adequately safeguarded.

When it comes to voting at the polls on Election Day, candidates, their signs and their staff members are not allowed near people or even near the polling place as they vote.

The same rules do not apply to absentee voting and that has some people worried about the potential for tampering with ballots and influencing voters.

Democrats and Republicans are pushing people to use absentee ballots and they're offering to come to the voters' doors to pick those ballots up and take them to election offices.

State senate candidate Loren Knauss sees problems in that process.

Knauss says, "When you hand it to an individual, who you do not know, and you don't know whether or not they actually even represent an organization. You don't know whether or not that absentee ballot is going to make it to the auditor's office."

For the first time, Iowa law now requires people who pick up absentee ballots to be government-trained couriers but they can still work for political campaigns.

The state's Democrats say they already have 2,000 couriers trained. Iowa's Republicans say they have more than 800.

So far, Pottawattamie County Auditor Mary Jo Drake says she's had no complaints.

She says, "They're very enthusiastically getting trained and doing their job."

But Knauss fears that couriers could influence votes by sitting with absentee voters at their homes as they fill out ballots.

"They're talking while the person votes," Knauss says. "They're campaigning while the vote is actually being made."

Knauss also believes that the couriers could throw the ballots away or find other ways to tamper with them if they don't like the way the people vote.

While the ballots are sealed and couriers are required to provide receipts for them, Knauss questions how many people will take the time to check on their vote.

But as some see it, the courier system is an improvement over the last presidential election when Iowa's absentee ballot collections had no restrictions at all.

Knauss' opponent is incumbent State Senator Mike Gronstal. We contacted him in Des Moines Tuesday night and he called these concerns, "patently absurd."

Gronstal says, "Republicans have found out we're better at absentee ballots than they are," and he accuses Knauss and other Republicans of engaging in a campaign of voter suppression by raising concerns that couldn't be farther from the truth.