Congress

Evans: Lawmakers dropped the ball in not fixing recount law

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The chambers of the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House of Representatives are silent after a busy 2021 session. Lawmakers teed up bills that addressed a wide assortment of problems, real or imagined. They decided against an increase in tax revenues for the three state universities. They took away authority of local governments to impose face-mask requirements to combat current or future diseases. They made significant changes in the process for creating charter schools, which will operate with state tax money but will not face many requirements public K-12 schools must follow.

Evans: U.S. House is wrong place to decide who won

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Tone-deaf. That’s the dismal state of the political discourse in our nation these days. Regrettably, Iowa has an all-too-prominent role in this bumbling lack of awareness of how our democracy is being eaten away by the people who want to be our leaders. Pour yourself a glass of Maalox. You will need it, because your acid indigestion will flare up before we get far in today’s discussion.

Evans: Weary reflections from the middle of the road

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I’m tired. I’m worn out. My energy has been sapped. I am tired of getting up every day and bracing myself to learn who or what, in the dawn’s early light, the president has demeaned, disparaged or mocked like a school kid. I long for the days when political leaders try to bring us together, rather than drive us apart.

Election

24 rural Iowa counties opt for single polling site amid COVID-19 concerns

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Voters in one Iowa county of 9,000 cast their ballots the same way people purchase a Big Mac: in the drivethrough. The Bloomfield Fire Department, the usual polling location for Bloomfield, served all of Davis County’s eight sites this year. Cars could pull into the emptied equipment bays — where the firetrucks normally sit — and drivers could vote behind the wheel and then pull forward to exit. All across Iowa, COVID-19 precautions changed the 2020 primary with a huge vote-by-mail push and other steps like curbside or drive-through options happening Tuesday. Rural counties, with fewer options for buildings, got creative.

Election 2018

Iowan Almost Missed First U.S. Vote, But Auditor Brought The Voter Back To Cast A Ballot

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A new Iowa City voter who recently passed a test to become a U.S. citizen but had not yet participated in a swearing-in ceremony almost lost a chance to vote Tuesday. But County Auditor Travis Weipert tracked the voter down so that the voter could return to the polling place and cast a ballot. “I’m one of those who, I want you to vote if you’re a U.S. citizen,” Weipert said Tuesday night. The voter, at the IC22 precinct at Shimek Elementary School in Johnson County, was questioned about being eligible to vote when registering at the precinct. One of the first questions when registering asks if the person registering is a U.S. citizen.

voting issues

Henry County, Iowa, Runs Out Of Ballots Early In the Day During Mid-Term

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Henry County, Iowa, ran out of ballots during the Tuesday mid-term elections. Auditor Shelly Barber told IowaWatch she only ordered enough ballots for 90 percent of the county’s registered voters, based off the turnout in the 2014 midterm election. SUPPORT NON-PROFIT JOURNALISM, DOUBLE YOUR DONATION WITH NEWSMATCH
But some precincts ran out by the end of Tuesday morning, she said. In lieu of ballots, voters across the county ended up using OpenElect Voting Interface (OVI) and OpenElect Voting Optical Scan (OVO) machines provided for blind or handicapped voters to cast their ballots. “People are a little testy if they have to wait,” Barber said.

Uncategorized

IowaWatch Connection Podcast: Large Money Gap, Few Dark Money Contributions So Far In Grassley-Judge Senate Race

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A big money gap marked the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and his Democrat challenger Patty Judge, according to the latest campaign disclosure reports available earlier this week at the time of production. Grassley’s campaign had $5.2 million on hand back in May, 22 times more than Judge, who had $229,000 as of June 30. Add to that $59,300 in bills that Judge’s campaign owed at that time.