(Radio Iowa) – Advocates for Iowa’s 50-thousand blind and visually-impaired residents are asking state officials to let them vote by mail independently, using assistive technology for absentee ballots. Right now, blind Iowans are unable to vote from home without another person there to help. Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, says many people don’t want to go to the polls because of the coronavirus pandemic.  “So they can’t vote independently and privately. They have to depend on someone else and that’s not voting,” Hudson says. “Voting, you’re supposed to be able to do privately and secretly, and no one else knows what your vote is.”

The secretary of state’s office says the legislature has to change the law for this to happen, but lawmakers declined to do that earlier this year. Advocates disagree, pointing to recent changes that were made to election procedures without full legislative approval. Carrie Chapman, president of the Iowa Council of the United Blind, says she’s had someone help her fill out an absentee ballot, but she says blind Iowans have a right to vote privately and independently.  “There’s people that don’t have an option of having someone come and help them,” Chapman says, “and especially during the pandemic, they may be high risk, so having someone come into their home is a whole other ballgame in terms of that.”

Groups representing blind Iowans have been asking the secretary of state and lawmakers for more than a year to approve an accessible absentee ballot system. Then voters could use a computer program at home that would read the ballot out loud, allow them to mark the ballot, print it, and mail it to their county auditor.

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

The Creston Police Department reports seven arrests took place over the weekend. Early Sunday morning, 27-year old Brandon Scott Lawrence, of Creston, was arrested at the intersection of Monroe/Maple St on a Union County Warrant for failure to appear original charge Theft 5th Degree. Lawrence was also charged with Possession of controlled substance 2nd offense and Possession of Paraphernalia. He is being held in the Union County Jail on $2.000 cash or surety bond. Sunday afternoon, 34-year old Skyler Lee Mcintosh, of Creston, was arrested at the intersection of Hwy 34/Osage during a traffic stop and charged with Possession of Paraphernalia, Possession of Controlled Substance 1st offense, and driving while barred. McIntosh was being held in the Union County Jail on $1,300 cash or surety bond.

Sunday morning, 35-year old Nicole Adrienne Sider, and 45-year old Harold Michael Roberts, both of Creston, were arrested on separate Domestic Abuse Assault charges. Sider was later released on $1,000 bond. Roberts was released on a $300 bond. 41-year old Justin Lawrence Moorhead, of Des Moines, was arrested Sunday afternoon for Public Intoxication. He was later released on a $300 bond.

And there were two arrests on Friday: 45-year old John Anthony Neely, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County warrant. He was taken into custody at the Union County Clerk of Court’s Office, and held in the Union County Jail on a $5,000 cash only bond. Friday night, 26-year old Andrew Thomas Palmer, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. He was later released on a $1,000 bond.

A woman who swerved to miss a squirrel crashed her SUV into a parked pickup truck in Red Oak, Sunday afternoon. According to Red Oak Police, 73-year old Donna Margaret Lewis, of Red Oak, was driving a 2012 Jeep Compass northbound in the 1400 block of N. 6th Street at around 3:55-p.m., when she swerved and lost control of her SUV. The vehicle struck a parked 2015 Chevy Colorado pickup, registered to Norman Edward Thompson.

Lewis was transported by Red Oak EMS to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital. She was cited for Failure to Maintain Control. Damage from the collision amounted to $6,000 each.