Just eight days after it was introduced in the Iowa Legislature, a bill that would make it harder to vote but easier to remove people from voting rolls, and creates new criminal liability for local election officials, received its final approval. On Wednesday night, the Republican-controlled Iowa House of Representatives sent the bill to Gov. […]
Early Voting
Posted inCommunity/News
Monday is the final day for early voting and for getting absentee ballots in the mail
Monday is the last day for early voting. The drive-through voting sites in Johnson County — at the parking ramp of the Johnson County Human Services Building in Iowa City (855 S Dubuque St) — and Linn County — near the Jean Oxley Linn County Public Service Center in Cedar Rapids (823 3rd St SW) […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Early voting: Weekend hours, free rides, no free pizza
Johnson County had its biggest day so far at its drive-through early voting site on Thursday, with 808 ballots cast, Auditor Travis Weipert tweeted on Friday morning. The county is less 2,000 votes away from breaking the record set in 2016, when 16,461 people voted early. 808 voters through the drive-thru yesterday! Not only does […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Advocates for Social Justice offering free Uber rides to the polls for all voters and childcare reimbursement
Iowans who need transportation to their polling place can use a free Uber voucher provided by the Advocates for Social Justice. The Cedar Rapids group announced on their Facebook page Wednesday evening that they are partnering with Democracy Defenders Iowa to expand their free Uber voucher to all Iowa voters. The group has already been […]
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Early voting: Iowa sets a new record, locations open through the weekend in Johnson and Linn
As the final week of early voting begins, Iowa is in the process of setting a new record. On Friday afternoon, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate tweeted that 708,899 voters had already cast a ballot for the Nov. 3 election, breaking the previous record set in 2012, when 679,118 Iowans voted early. Democrats are […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Drive-through voting sites add weekend hours, new satellite voting locations open
As early voting for the Nov. 3 election continues, the drive-through voting sites for Johnson County and Linn County are adding weekend hours, and both counties are opening new satellite voting locations. The drive-through voting site in Johnson County at the parking ramp north of the Johnson County Health and Human Services Building in Iowa […]
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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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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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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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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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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 […]
