(Radio Iowa) – Iowa voters are being presented with a three-part proposal about who is eligible to vote in Iowa. The amendment proposed for Iowa’s constitution says 17 year olds may vote in a Primary if they’ll be 18 by the General Election. That’s already state law. Another part of the proposed amendment says –only– U-S citizens may vote in Iowa elections, a change from current language in the document that says –every– U-S citizen may vote. Some Democrats say the proposal would prevent legal U-S residents from being allowed to vote in local city or school board elections at some point in the future. Bill Brauch is chair of Polk County Democrats.

“These may be people who own their own homes, they are paying real estate taxes, they are paying sales taxes, they’re paying income taxes in the United States and they cannot cast a vote,” Brauch says. “What this amendment does is it prevents the legislature from ever changing that.” Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann predicts the proposed amendment will pass easily.

“Voting is for citizens and I would be willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of Iowans agree with that,” Kaufmann says. “I’m going to guess that a majority of Democrats are in favor of that.”

The third part of this proposed amendment aligns Iowa’s Constitution with the 26th amendment to the U-S Constitution that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 nationally — back in 1971. The OTHER proposed state constitutional amendment on Iowa ballots this year deals with the line of succession in state government.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic will hold back-to-back meetings Wednesday evening. The first is a Special Session at 5-p.m. to act on two resolutions: “Adopting a Memorandum of Understanding with the Atlantic Community School District for a School Resource Officer Program.”  The second resolution is “Authorizing Vision Atlantic, Inc., to proceed with infrastructure for the Camblin Hills Development and Assurances Regarding a Development Agreement.”

The Council will hold a Work Session at approximately 5:15-p.m., to:

• Review, discuss and come to a consensus on a Housing Development Policy. And…
• Review, discuss and come to a consensus on the Sidewalk Program.

Both meetings take place in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall in Atlantic.

City Council Meeting & Work Session Agenda Packet 10-30-2024

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s secretary of state and the American Civil Liberties Union have sent letters to county auditors, reminding them they are in the three month period when they cannot respond to challenges seeking removal of names from Iowa voter registration lists. Federal law says such challenges must be tabled within 90 days of an election. State election officials say a non-partisan vendor that monitors activity on voter registration lists reports Iowa county auditors have continued to process voter registration challenges.

Rita Bettis Austen is legal counsel for the A-C-L-U of Iowa. “We sent this letter because we were contacted by impacted voters who learned they had been a part of some of these mass challenges and that led us to investigate,” Bettis Austen says.

The A-C-L-U has confirmed the registrations for thousands of voters in Johnson, Muscatine and Pottawattamie Counties have been challenged and some Iowans have had their voter registration cancelled in error. “It is deeply concerning to us that auditors may have improperly removed some Iowa voters based on that Secretary of State letter,” Bettis Austen said, “and one of the things that our letter reminds auditors of is the fact that they need to restore those voters who have been improperly removed due to those challenges.”

The Council Bluffs Nonpareil has reported a local man walked into the Pottawattamie County Auditor’s office in August and challenged whether over six-hundred registered voters still lived in the county. Any voter who has been removed from the registration list can still register and vote at their county auditor’s office or at their precinct on Election Day if they show proof of their current home address on things like a utility bill, a paycheck or the address listed on their photo I-D.

(Radio Iowa) – The Oelwein City Council approved a request Monday for a leave of absence at for At-Large Council Member Karen Seeders, who was arrested at her home on October 18th on felony drug charges. Oelwein Mayor Brett De Vore told K-C-R-G T-V they first asked Seeders what she wanted to do. “We leave it up to the person and what they choose to do. Whether it’s resigning, keep coming. Personally, I would have resigned if it were me,” De Vore says.

Seeders was elected to the position in 2021 after winning a special election. DeVore said he talked with Seeders since the arrest, and she told him she has an obligation to stay on. )“She feels that she was elected by the residents of the community to represent them, and she wants to keep doing that,” Mayor DeVore says. Iowa law says only a city council or a district court can remove a member of the council, but the city attorney said he doesn’t believe it can at this time. Iowa Code says the council member would need to be convicted of a felony, and Seeders is only facing charges.

The mayor tells K-C-R-G T-V the leave is the only option. “We really don’t have an option to remove her at this point,” DeVore says. The council did approve having the mayor to talk with Seeders about limiting the leave to 60 days. “People are not happy, I don’t believe anyone on council is very happy about it either,” he says.

Seeders’ seat at the council meeting was empty Monday while the council discussed how to proceed.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who are considering picking up some seasonal work during the final few months of the year should apply now, according to a University of Iowa business professor. Peggy Stover, who directs the U-I’s Marketing Institute, says many retailers are looking to make immediate hires as we’re now less than a month from Thanksgiving.

“Right now, retailers are scrambling for consumers to come into their stores,” Stover says. “Online shopping continues to be the giant juggernaut that brick-and-mortar stores continue to vie for holiday shoppers.” Thanksgiving is a little later this year, falling on November 28th, meaning it will be a shorter holiday shopping season. What will that mean for consumers?

“Actually, there’ll be better deals in the end because of the fact that retailers definitely want to clear out their holiday inventory,” Stover says, “so definitely some good bargains out there to be had in addition to a strong market for hiring seasonal workers.” The national inflation rate has fallen to two-point-four percent and the state unemployment rate held steady at two-point-nine percent in September.

Stover predicts the holiday shopping season ahead will be robust, with Black Friday just a month from today (Tuesday). “Right now it’s being forecasted to increase anywhere from two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half percentage points versus last year,” Stover says, “so definitely going to be a good holiday season. I think overall, holiday shopping is going to be strong again this year.”

Stover sees “fan favorites” like clothing and accessories being big sellers in the season ahead, but also a surge in what she calls memory-making “experience gifts,” everything from concert tickets to a day at the spa.