Iowa   (Registration problems, early poll closings, systematic (illegal) dirty tricks, suppression of student voters, malfeasance of officials)

 

Johnson County

 

016411

10/27/04, 4:54 PM PST

Registration-related problem

Johnson County County, Iowa

Voter moved from one county in Iowa to another. She mailed in a request to her new county (Johnson county) to register there and to recieve an absentee ballot. When she did not receive her absentee ballot, she called the registar's office and was told that they threw away her registration and absentee ballot request form because she was not already registered in that county and they were receiving too many registrations.

018316

10/31/04, 7:51 AM PST

Dirty tricks

Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa

Her block was being leafletted with flyers listing wrong polling place from "new voters project" and listing 1-866-ourvote hotline number.

019588

11/01/04, 5:52 AM PST

Polling place inquiry

Johnson County, Iowa

moved 4 times, but perm address old location, need to know where to vote

027487

11/01/04, 6:41 PM PST

Other

Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa

DNC called voter to challenge his registration. Voter has been a 30 yr. resident

042764

11/02/04, 1:42 PM PST

Registration-related problem

Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa

Re-Registered 3 times and never received a absentee ballot.

047317

11/02/04, 4:29 PM PST

Provisional ballot problem

Central School, Johnson County, Iowa

Cast a provisional ballot but was told that she must prove that she registered by noon on Nov. 4th. New Voters Project is a student organization that she thinks is affiliated with University of Iowa. [P]

047876

11/02/04, 4:51 PM PST

Other

County Auditor's Office, Johnson County County, Iowa

Republicans challengers have challenged over 4000 absentee ballots. Got email from friend, currently at auditors office. Grounds for challengingng are unknown.

060429

12/27/04, 6:05 AM PST

Absentee-ballot related problem; Registration-related problem

Johnson County, Iowa

Reported via mail to eirhelp: Want a case study of dirty voter fraud tricks? [Name redacted] called me last night, upset because she got a letter in the mail yesterday (Nov. 9) saying her absentee ballot was challenged, and she had until noon on Nov. 4th to reply or her ballot would be thrown out. She's having her mail forwarded from IC to DC while she's there, which explains why it took a week for her to get this letter. So [Name redacted] called the county auditor's office to complain. Apparently, the auditor's office had received a couple *thousand* similar calls complaining this week. Some committee challenged a bunch of absentee ballots in Johnson county, and really didn't give voters a chance to respond: the letter regarding the challenge (sent from Dubuque) was postmarked Nov. 3, and they required a response by noon Nov. 4. They invalidated her voter registration, in fact. So not only didn't her vote for Kerry count, she now has to re-register to vote in the future. [Name redacted] and I voted in the last congressional election 2 years ago, and she hasn't changed addresses or anything since then. She checked to make sure her registration was still valid when we got our absentee ballots, in fact. I wonder how widespread this is? If they were able to invalidate ballots from people who were clearly legitimate voters, simply by a technicality whereby they challenged the ballot and didn't give the voter a chance to respond, how much did this occur nationwide? There is a serious flaw in the system when the burden of proof is on the voter. If someone wants to challenge a voter registration, they should have to prove there is a reason it should be invalid. It's ludicrous that someone can challenge a ballot without reason, and require the voter to jump through hoops to prove that they should be allowed to vote.

060736

12/31/04, 6:27 AM PST

Voter Intimidation

Johnson County, Iowa

According to http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030376/1056 complaints were made that MoveOn volunteers were electioneering within 300 feet of a polling place. According to http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041102/NEWS09/41102003/1001/NEWS the volunteers may have been talking only to people who had already voted. The problems were resolved without arrests.

060738

12/31/04, 6:30 AM PST

Voter Intimidation

Johnson County, Iowa

According to http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030376/1056 Republicans challenged the legality of several hundred absentee ballots, forcing them into a pile of challenged votes that will be sorted out later. Challenges included different spellings of a person's name. "There's no one particular group that is being targeted that we can tell, other than the fact that they're all Democrats," said Sarah Swisher, the county's Democratic Party chairwoman.

060748

12/31/04, 7:04 AM PST

Registration-related problem; Machine problem; Problem based on student status

Johnson County, Iowa

According to http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/NEWS09/410130353/1001 many voter registrations couldn't be processed because they used part of their SSN as identification but the state's connection to the Social Security database wasn't working. The problem especially affected students.

 

Story County

State officials said Story County Auditor Mary Mosiman violated voting regulations when she directed poll workers to turn away people in line at closing time. Story Archive

10/31/2004 Vote suppression IA Story County Auditor Mary Mosiman decided not to open another satellite voting station Monday, even though Secretary of State Chet Culver had                                    said she would after some students complained they were turned away from a site at ISU's Parks Library on Oct. 21. Story Archive

10/13/2004 Registration fraud IA Voters who, legitimately, included their Social Security number as the ID on their form have had their registration rejected because the                                                          state connection to the Social Security database isn't working yet and the auditors can't verify the ID information. Story

http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=date&selectstate=IA&selectproblemtype=ALL

 

 

Voteprotect.org

 

https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapState&state=Iowa&cat=ALL&tab=ALL

 

Story County has a very high concentration of Democrats.

Ames, Iowa--the home of Iowa State University--is in Story County. A distinct majority of ISU students are Dems. The mid-size town is highly Democratic.

The night of the election, I saw Chet Culver on the news complaining that the Story County auditor did not make available the satellite office to which she                                     originally agreed. Culver said (to the best of my recollection), that she had agreed on a certain number of voting sites, but that these sites were not up.                                             He seemed bewildered that the plan to have a certain number of voting site--was not executed. Culver was not happy, and justifiably so.

Iowa City--another college town in which very high concentrations of liberals/Dems live--also reported some dirty tricks.

Story County and Johnson County are two of Iowa's largest Dem strongholds--and stories have come out in both of these counties. I have yet to hear of dirty-tricks played in other Iowa counties. Isn't that interesting?

When will we truly catch these crooks?

Student voting Problems

014504

10/25/04, 6:02 AM PST

Registration-related problem

Dubuque, Dubuque County, Iowa

Recent article, last wed(?) in Dubuque Telegraph Herald written by M.JH. Kittle told of students at Loras College in Dubuque who thought they had registered but denied. Exec editor is Brian Cooper 563 588 5662 There are two other colleges in Dubuque and may be problems there too. [P]

047317

11/02/04, 4:29 PM PST

Provisional ballot problem

Central School, Johnson County, Iowa

Cast a provisional ballot but was told that she must prove that she registered by noon on Nov. 4th. New Voters Project is a student organization that she thinks is affiliated with University of Iowa. [P]

060748

12/31/04, 7:04 AM PST

Registration-related problem; Problem based on student status

Johnson County, Iowa

According to http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/NEWS09/410130353/1001 many voter registrations couldn't be processed because they used part of their SSN as identification but the state's connection to the Social Security database wasn't working. The problem especially affected students

016489

10/27/04, 7:46 PM PST

Absentee-ballot related problem

Thompson, Winnebago County, Iowa

Caller (student in Pella, Iowa) concerned regarding failure to receive absentee ballot