DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa court judge has struck down a portion of a 2017 voting reform law that requires county election officials to call, write or email voters who do not completely fill out an application for an absentee ballot. The law was written to say county officials must use the best means available to find missing information.

When Secretary of State Paul Pate wrote the administrative rules to enact the law, he prohibited election officials from looking up the needed information in their electronic voter registration system. He instead required election officials to contact voters by phone, writing or by email.

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa sued last year, saying Pate’s rule could lead to voter suppression. In a ruling Thursday, Judge Karen Romano said Pate’s interpretation of the Legislature’s language is erroneous, irrational and illogical. Pate says he will appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Additional challenged sections of the law, which require voters to present government-issued identification at polls and shorten the time frame for casting absentee ballots, are scheduled for trial in June.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A second Republican has announced he’ll challenge embattled Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King in the 2020 primary. The Sioux City Journal reports that 40-year-old Jeremy Taylor, a Woodbury County supervisor and former state legislator, announced his candidacy for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in a news release Thursday. Taylor touted his conservative record on abortion, gun rights and tax relief.

Earlier this month, another Republican — state Sen. Randy Feenstra — announced he’ll challenge the longtime GOP congressman. At least two other Republicans have indicated they might too.
King is known for his caustic comments about race and immigration. He was stripped of his committee assignments and rebuked by the House in a 424-1 vote for recent comments about white supremacy.

Police in Council Bluffs report officers were dispatched a little after 10-a.m. today (Thursday), to the old, vacant No Frills Supermarket store at 1817 West Broadway, for a death investigation. While the store’s shelving and coolers were being removed by a contract firm, a body was found. The body appears to have been there an extended period of time.

The Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner’s Office responded, and is conducting an investigation along with the Council Bluffs Police Department. The Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office has ordered an autopsy and the body will be transported their facility in Ankeny.

Officials with Southwest Valley Schools in Corning put out a statement Thursday on social media, with regard to students soliciting money for organizations. The statement said “If you are approached by a student claiming to represent a school organization soliciting money please remember the following:

1) Make sure the student soliciting funds has paperwork related to the fundraiser, especially if you give cash as payment so it can be tracked.

2) NEVER make out a personal check to a student. ALWAYS make out the check to the school or school organization.”

If you are suspicious, contact (S.W. Valley) immediately. Administrators have paperwork on file for all approved fundraisers and can check into the situation for you.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Joni Ernst says in an interview that she was raped by a boyfriend while she was a student at Iowa State University but didn’t report the assault. In an interview with Bloomberg posted online Wednesday night, Ernst disclosed the attack. She also clarified her discussions with President Donald Trump about becoming his running mate. Ernst, a first-term Republican from Iowa, this week has spoken about her troubled marriage and other aspects of her life after media disclosures based on court documents from her recently settled divorce from Gail Ernst, 65. They were married 26 years and have one adult daughter. Ernst, 48, told Bloomberg she decided to disclose the rape after the court filings were publicized, including her allegations that her husband assaulted her.

Ernst said she was in a relationship with a man who was “physically and sexually abusive.” She said he raped her at his home and threatened to kill himself if she ended the relationship. She called a campus sexual assault counseling center hotline and ended the relationship but didn’t report the attack to police. During her 2014 Senate campaign, Ernst noted she volunteered at the counseling center but didn’t acknowledge the assault. “I was embarrassed,” she said. “I didn’t know how to explain it. I was so humiliated. And I’m a private person, when it comes to those things.”

Ernst declined to name the man who attacked her, noting she’d described the assault to her former husband but not divulged the man’s identity. In court affidavits filed during the divorce hearings , Ernst stated that Trump interviewed her in 2016 to be his vice president. Ernst wrote, “I turned Candidate Trump down, knowing it wasn’t the right thing for me or my family.” In the Bloomberg interview, Ernst clarified that Trump didn’t offer her the job and that after thinking about it, she phoned then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort to withdraw from consideration. Trump eventually chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is now vice president.

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — A former southern Iowa county attorney accused of driving while intoxicated is scheduled to begin trial April 8. Clarke County court records say 42-year-old Michelle Rivera pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charge and a related crime. She’d been arrested last month in Osceola. Rivera lost her re-election bid in November after she was arrested in October on suspicion of being drunk on the job in a Clarke County courtroom. A sheriff’s deputy said in a criminal complaint that he noticed Rivera “slurring her words and stumbling on her feet” in the Osceola courtroom. He arrested her after she refused to take a breath test. She was charged with public intoxication. Rivera eventually pleaded guilty and was fined $65.