A cold wind was blowing at the Des Moines International Airport late Wednesday afternoon as people gathered in a spot on the tarmac typically used by cargo planes for a Trump campaign rally. But the crowd of almost 4,000 didn’t seem discouraged by the wind. The Trump campaign had announced it expected at least 10,000 […]
2020 Elections
Posted inCommunity/News
Trump campaign says 10,000 expected at Des Moines rally as COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa hit a new high
As preparations for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally at the Des Moines International Airport got underway on Wednesday morning, the Biden campaign released a statement about Trump’s decision to hold the rally as community spread of COVID-19 continues to cause numbers of new cases in Iowa to surge. Iowa has been ravaged by the coronavirus […]
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‘We’re doing whatever we can to help the voter’: Iowa county auditors discuss early voting, concerns about the mail and preparing for a record turnout
A record number of Iowans — nearly a quarter of the state’s population — have requested absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election, according to the Secretary of State’s office. Secretary of State Paul Pate announced last Friday there had been 703,768 request forms submitted by voters across the state. The previous record of 693,000 […]
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Satellite locations for early voting open this week
Early voting in the Nov. 3 election got off to a fast start last week, with 14,389 people casting ballots in Johnson County and 5,580 voting early in Linn County. Those totals reflect both in-person early voting, as well as absentee ballots returned by mail or deposited in the drop boxes set up by the […]
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President Trump to host in-person rally in Des Moines on Wednesday
Less than two weeks after his COVID-19 diagnosis, President Donald Trump will travel to Iowa for an in-person campaign rally. The Make America Great Again rally is scheduled to take place Wednesday evening at the Des Moines International Airport. Doors are set to open at 3 p.m., with the event starting at 6. While Trump’s […]
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Voters can put absentee ballots in drop boxes instead of mailing them
Two drop boxes for absentee ballots were installed at the Johnson County Administration Building on Tuesday. Monday was the first day county auditor offices could mail absentee ballots to voters who have requested them, and Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert said his office had sent 32,000 absentee ballots to the Cedar Rapids post office to […]
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A ballsy campaign ad put Joni Ernst on the map. It may be all she’s remembered for.
Six years ago, a little-known state senator introduced herself to Iowans statewide with the words, “I’m Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm.” The “Make ’em Squeal” ad helped plant an image of Ernst in the public’s mind as a plain-speaking farm girl who wanted to bring Iowa common sense to […]
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Advocates for Social Justice offering free Uber rides to the polls for Linn County voters
The grassroots group Advocates for Social Justice is trying to make it easier for people to vote in the upcoming general election. The group is offering free Uber rides for Linn County voters and is organizing various events near polling places. Early voting in Iowa began on Monday. County auditors began mailing out absentee ballots […]
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Where to go and what you need to vote early in Johnson and Linn County
Early voting began in Iowa on Monday, with county auditors starting to mail out requested absentee ballots and early in-person voting sites opening. “We have almost 30,000 requests for absentee ballots,” Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert said during an appearance last week on Iowa City’s Community Connection. “We’re going to mail those out through the […]
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‘I’m ready to get to work’: Hai Huynh elected to the Coralville City Council
In a special election with a higher voter turnout than last year’s regular city election, Coralville voters elected Hai Huynh to the city council last night. Huynh scored an impressive victory in the four-candidate race, receiving 52.5 percent of the votes cast. The second-place finisher was Barry Bedford with 35.5 percent of the vote. Bedford […]
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What you need to know ahead of Coralville’s Sept. 29 special election
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, a special election will be held in Coralville to fill a vacant seat on the city council. The vacancy was created when longtime Coralville City Councilmember Tom Gill resigned in late July, after coming under fire for comments made during a virtual meeting of the council focused in part on racial […]
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Democrats are a third of Iowa’s registered voters, but 55 percent of those who have requested absentee ballots
For the 2016 general election, a total of 286,268 Democrats requested absentee ballots. As of Wednesday morning — 41 days before the Nov. 3 election — 306,927 Democrats had requested absentee ballots, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. That is more than the number of absentee ballot requests from Republicans and people registered […]
