(Radio Iowa) — Recently re-elected Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says the state’s voter registration data base and election system must be rebuilt. “It remains vital that we see this project through to its completion,” Pate says. The governor and legislators set aside a million dollars in the current budgeting year to start a five-year upgrade estimated to cost SEVEN million dollars. “The I-Voters system was designed to meet the needs of the elections in 2005 — before we had absentee voting as common as it is now, before we implemented Election Day registration and before online registration,” Pate says. “I-Voters was great when it was built, but it’s very expensive every time we try to add something new that the system wasn’t built for.”

For example, 17 year olds in Iowa soon will be able to register and vote in PRIMARY elections if they’ll turn 18 before the following GENERAL election. Pate says it will cost 150-thousand dollars to re-program the I-Voters system for that change. Pate has used some federal grant money to upgrade the system to withstand hacking attempts from Russia and other “bad actors.” “Cyber security is a new and ongoing and constantly evolving threat,” Pate says. “Although we diligently monitor and patch I-Voters, it is nearly at the end of its life. First-in-the-nation in voting demands first-in-the-nation security.”

The next big STATEWIDE test for the system will be the 2020 Iowa Caucuses when the Republican Party of Iowa and the Iowa Democratic Party use the I-Voters system to check voter registrations. Pate is asking legislators to double the appropriation for the I-Voters upgrade to more than two million dollars in the next state budgeting year.

CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) — A trial has been scheduled for a northern Iowa woman accused of injecting her mother with insulin in an attempt to kill her. Floyd County District Court records say 44-year-old Jennifer Bean entered a written plea of not guilty Monday to a charge of attempted murder. Her trial is set to begin Jan. 8 in Charles City. She’s also pleaded not guilty to obstruction of emergency communications and has been charged with domestic abuse assault.

A court document says Bean injected her mother on Nov. 6 in Charles City. The document says the insulin caused the woman to have low blood sugar that, if not treated, could have resulted in the woman’s death.
The document also says Bean struck and pushed her mother and took away a phone when her mother tried to call 911 for help.

(11/29/18) SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — In a story Nov. 28 about an Iowa man being sentenced to prison in South Dakota after pleading guilty to cyberstalking and other charges, The Associated Press misidentified the man. His name is Daniel Vincent Jr., of Council Bluffs, Iowa, not David Vincent Jr.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A western Iowa man accused of posting nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on Craigslist has been sentenced in South Dakota to nearly six years in a federal prison. Thirty-two-year-old Daniel Vincent Jr., of Council Bluffs, earlier pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and failing to pay child support. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Vincent posted ads on Craigslist that listed the victim’s name, employment address and cell phone number and included claims that she was interested in having sex with men in the Sioux Falls area.

The woman went to Sioux Falls police after men started sending naked photos of themselves and started showing up at her workplace. Prosecutors say that at the time of sentencing last week, Vincent had more than $19,000 in unpaid child support for a child he had with the victim.

A fiery, single-vehicle crash this (Wednesday) morning in eastern Iowa resulted in the death of a man from Wisconsin. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2011 Nissan Versa driven by 60-year old Rick Inman, of Glendale, WI., exited eastbound Interstate 80 at around 2:47-a.m. at the intersection of U Avenue, and failed to stop at the end of the exit ramp. The vehicle traveled across U Avenue and left the road before entering a ditch. It vaulted over a creek and impacted the ground on the east side of the water before erupting in flames and coming to rest in the ditch. Inman died at the scene.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office, Williamsburg Police and Williamsburg Fire and Rescue.