Last-minute Iowa voter challenges, an IA-01 debate, and more
Oct. 28 "Capitol Week" is online
A quick programming note: Spencer and I will be on the radio live next Monday at 7 PM, as usual. We will also be live on the air at some point on election night (exact time to be determined). On Wednesday, November 6, we will do another live show at noon, when KHOI normally replays our Monday program.
The audio from our latest show is at the top. You can also find it on any podcast platform or smart speaker by subscribing to “KHOI’s Capitol Week.” The full archive (going back to February 2021) is available on KHOI’s website.
Topics Bob and I covered on the October 28 program:
We began with Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s last-minute directive telling county auditors to challenge ballots from "self-reported" non-citizens. (Some people on the secret list of more than 2,000 registered voters are in fact naturalized citizens.) I haven’t been able to get answers from Pate’s staff about this. I plan to attend a press conference he is giving on Wednesday and will try to pin down more details;
It’s not clear whether naturalized citizens who are on this list will all have to use provisional ballots if they attempt to vote on November 5, or whether some will be able to vote with a regular ballot if they bring proof of citizenship with them;
The ACLU of Iowa wrote to the Secretary of State and all 99 county auditors on Friday to warn about unrelated mass challenges to voter registrations in some counties, including Johnson, Muscatine, and Pottawattamie counties. You can read their letter here;
If you’re not registered to vote, or not sure whether your voter registration is up to date, there is still time! Bring proof of address (e.g. lease, utility bill, paycheck, bank statement) in addition to some form of ID with you when voting in person, either at your county auditor’s office through November 4, or at your regular polling place;
I’m continuing to update the absentee ballot numbers at Bleeding Heartland. The official figures show the party affiliation of Iowans who voted early, but they don’t tell us how those people voted, or whether they are reliable or infrequent voters;
Last Monday, Iowa PBS hosted the only debate between the first Congressional district contenders, U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan. Bob and I discussed notable moments from the debate;
I was surprised Miller-Meeks claimed during the debate that the Life at Conception Act (which she co-sponsored in 2021) doesn’t mention abortion. Like other “personhood” bills, it is clearly designed to lay the groundwork for a total abortion ban. It turns out other House Republicans have used the same talking point;
Bob shared his impression from a Miller-Meeks campaign event in Pella, featuring Governor Kim Reynolds. I explained why Marion County could be important for the Republican incumbent;
Tulsi Gabbard headlined an event for Miller-Meeks in Davenport, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. GOP primary challenger David Pautsch gained more votes than Miller-Meeks in June, so she may be feeling pressure to shore up her Republican base;
We touched on some of Bohannan’s recent events, including a labor rally in Burlington and a canvass in Iowa City. Des Moines County and Johnson County will be quite important;
There was a controversy over possible trademark infringement in one of Bohannan’s TV ads, which featured the candidate wearing an “IOWA” t-shirt. The Democrat already has a new commercial in rotation;
Bob lives in the first Congressional district and described some of the political mail he has received lately. The candidates and outside groups have spent millions on the race;
Kevin Virgil, the conservative Republican who challenged U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra in the fourth Congressional district, made waves in August when he urged supporters of his GOP primary campaign to vote for Democrat Ryan Melton in the general election. But when Virgil voted early last week, he didn’t follow his own ticket-splitting advice;
It may be difficult to find out after the election how many votes the various write-in candidates received. County auditors do count all of those ballots, but they don’t publish the names unless someone running as a write-in receives more than 5 percent of the total vote for that office;
A spelling error on some Polk County ballots shouldn’t invalidate any votes for or against a proposed constitutional amendment;
Boone County’s ballots were longer than usual this year and didn’t fit easily into the return envelopes. But absentee voters should not worry: the county auditor assured me that it won’t be a problem if ballots are folded in a different way to make them fit;
If you have received an absentee ballot by mail and haven’t returned it yet, it is probably best to hand-deliver at this point. To be counted, Iowa ballots must arrive at the county auditor’s office by 8 pm on November 5, regardless of postmark. Remember that it’s no longer legal in Iowa to hand-deliver someone else’s completed absentee ballot, unless you are related to that person or live in the same household.
We touched on some noteworthy Iowa Senate races but didn’t have much time to dig in. I wrote much more about eleven Iowa Senate races to watch at Bleeding Heartland.
Thank you for reading or listening! Spencer and I will have lots more Congressional and legislative campaign news to discuss on November 4.
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Just so much incredibly important content (as usual). The column provides new things to worry about -- that require watchdogging. Grateful for the important work being done in Iowa as I watch from Michigan and wonder how things will ripple nationally.
Thanks, Laura. You always have important and new information I would have trouble finding anywhere else.