The hallway outside the Iowa secretary of state's office Monday was packed with people who had come to voice their opinions on stricter Iowa voting regulations that will be finalized this week. But depending on your point of view, those people were either true patriots wanting to ensure every eligible vote is counted, or Democratic Party operatives looking to disrupt and score political points.

What can't be disputed is that the room designated for the public hearing fell way short of accommodating all those who wanted to attend. It had seats for only 20 guests (and standing room for a handful more) while scores more waited outside. Those who made it in were asked to leave when someone else's name was called from the list of speakers.

That's no way to hold a public hearing. Even as a press person, I had to appeal to various people before being allowed in because of capacity.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Paul Pate said a larger room wasn't considered because only 15 people had contacted their office in advance requesting to speak.

"We weren't anticipating the Iowa Democrat Party, Progress Iowa and all these groups sending out action alerts," quipped Kevin Hall, who specifically mentioned a Democratic Party staff member and two candidates for office among the crowd. "We did not prepare for a full Democratic Party push to get their people out."

But if handlers for the Republican secretary of state saw political opportunism in the turnout, the other side saw political opportunism in the new voter ID law and its implementation. Several accused the agency of not publicizing the event so as to to keep opposition out of the headlines.

Moving to a larger room at the last minute would have been impractical, said Hall, who insists the new law and its implementation "will not disenfranchise anyone." But they could at least have set up a live-stream of the meeting for the overflow crowd.

The law, HF 516, signed in May by outgoing Gov. Terry Branstad, requires every voter to present a government-issued ID when going to vote. Opponents say it's a solution in search of a problem since there is no evidence of large-scale voter fraud. They fear it would keep voters away if there were lines waiting when polls closed. And some suspect that's the Republicans' true intent: to keep minority, low-income, transgender and other marginalized groups that tend to vote Democratic away from the polls.

Seven groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Disability Rights Iowa, the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP, and One Iowa jointly issued a letter last month expressing concern about the proposed rules. Several individuals offered testimony Monday supporting Pate and decrying voting by non-citizens.

Among the provisions questioned was one giving precinct election officials the discretion to decide when a proof of residence and identity card do not match the person. Speakers argued that changes in a signature, for example, can come with aging or disability. Also, there was testimony that people who register on Election Day will have a more limited options to prove their identities than those already registered, including the oath of another registered voter. One woman wondered why older Americans living in senior facilities need a lesser standard of proof than those in private housing.

Under the previous law, another person could take an oath on behalf of more than one prospective voter. That's gone, which concerns members of nonprofit groups that conduct voter registration drives.

Leaders representing new Americans with Asian and Latino roots expressed concern over a new provision that eliminates straight party voting, among others

The law will be rolled out in stages beginning in 2018. Hall said beginning in December, his office will send a Voter ID card to every registered voter who lacks a driver's license or its equivalent. That list will be based on comparing DOT licensed drivers with voter rolls.

Pate's office compares voter rolls with those of county courts to see if people registered to vote have served jury duty. Hall said in at least eight cases in the last month or two, people had declined to serve as jurors on the grounds they were noncitizens but then registered to vote. The ACLU noted some of them could have subsequently gotten citizenship.

In a statement sent out Tuesday, Pate said he has partnered with the DOT to implement online voter registration, which 70,000 people used in 2016. He said he had taken steps to help victims of violent crimes, college students, veterans and people with disabilities vote. "I will continue to find ways to make it easy to vote," he said. "But it also needs to be hard to cheat.”

But is that as much of a problem as claimed? Statistics say otherwise.

Pointing to polls that showed 69 percent of Iowans favor the law, Hall said, "Democrats just wanted to re-legislate and protest the law."

But it's sad that a process intended to give people a voice in government turned so divisive. It's even sadder that the gulf of trust is so great that something everyone should want — clean, fair and accessible elections — should generate so much distrust.

REKHA BASU is an opinion columnist for The Des Moines Register. Contact: rbasu@dmreg.com Follow her on Twitter @RekhaBasu and at Facebook.com/ColumnistRekha. Her book, "Finding Her Voice: A collection of Des Moines Register columns about women's struggles and triumphs in the Midwest," is available at ShopDMRegister.com/FindingHerVoice