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Official canvas: 1,546,453 Iowans voted in 2008 General Election

November 24, 2008 By

A record number of Iowans cast ballots in the 2008 election according to the latest data. The state’s Executive Council met Monday to certify the results of the November 4th election.

"These are the final numbers from the statewide canvas, shows we have a record turnout here in Iowa of over 1,546,000 voters," Secretary of State Michael Mauro says. That’s nearly 25,000 more Iowans than had participated in the last presidential election in 2004.

Mauro had expected turnout to be even higher. "Everything indicated that (higher turnout)," Mauro says. "The amount of early voters was 100,000 than we had four years ago so some of those early voters were, obviously, people who were going to go to the polls (on Election Day but decided to vote early), but number-wise, that was a record in the total number of people who participated."

The percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot was the same as in 2004. "I don’t think we’re going to be leading the country percentage wise, but I hope we’re going to be in the top 10," Mauro says. "We had…between 72 and 73 percent of our voters participate and we had about 557,000 participate by early, absentee ballot and that definitely is a big, big number."

The executive council will meet again next Monday, December 1, to certify the results of four legislative races where recounts have been conducted.  This afternoon, Blawk Hawk County officials announced Senator Jeff Danielson of Waterloo finished ahead of challenger Walt Rogers by 22 votes.

The other three races where there’ve been recounts are for seats in the Iowa House. "Official" election results can be viewed on Secretary of State’s Web site, www.sos.state.ia.us .

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

ISU football has week off before starting work for next year

November 24, 2008 By

Iowa State coach Gene Chizik says after a week off it will be back to work for the Cyclones as they try to turn the program around. ISU closed a dismal season with a 2-10 record after a 38-30 loss at Kansas State.

Chizek says his players aren’t in school and says it’s a much needed rest after a long season. He says the players will return to strength and conditioning work and the coaches will hit the recruiting trail next week and get started on next season.

The Cyclones finished the season without a Big-12 victory. Chizik has a vote in the coaches poll and refused to say during the Big-12 teleconference whether he voted Texas or Oklahoma higher. Chizek says he doesn’t have any quilt about how he voted and "never will." 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Big 12 commissioner does not favor playoff

November 24, 2008 By

Despite the confusion over who may represent the Big 12 South in the conference title game and/or the national championship game the commissioner of the league says he does not favor a national playoff.

Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech are currently tied for the division lead and if there is a three way tie the highest ranked team in the Bowl Championship Series standings will advance to the conference title contest.

That puts Texas in the odd position of hoping Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State this weekend but not bad enough to help the Sooners overtake the Longhorns in the rankings.

Dan Beebe says that’s the system they have and says in some ways it is fun to have all the dialogue that heats up as it goes along. He says it would be impossible for college football to create an NFL style playoff system that won’t take away from the regular season.

He says the NFL has 37% of the teams involved, which keeps the interest high all through the season. Beebe says to do that in the NCAA, they’d have to have a 42-team playoff. Beebe says college football has the most exciting regular season of any sport.

Beebe says if they ever went to a four team playoff they would then be talking about why they did it and the affect it had on the regular season.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Maine happy to meet UNI after losing Saturday

November 24, 2008 By

Maine coach Jack Cosgrove says Saturday’s playoff game with Northern Iowa is giving the Black Bears a second chance. Maine ended the regular season with a loss to New Hampshire and at the time Cosgrove thought it dealt a fatal blow to their playoff chances.

Cosgrove says he felt privileged to go back to the players who were down and now they are back up and ready to play again. Going on the road in the playoffs is nothing new for Maine. He says they’ve never hosted a playoff and came to UNI in 2001.

Cosgrove says they are just glad to have the chance to keep playing. He says they’re excited and honored to be in the playoffs. Maine is 8-4 on the season.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Report says five percent of Iowa kids uninsured

November 24, 2008 By

A new analysis concludes just over five percent of kids in Iowa are uninsured. "Families U.S.A." executive director Ron Pollack says his group’s analysis covers data from 2005, 2006 and 2007, so there are probably more uninsured kids in Iowa today due to this year’s economic downturn.

"Iowa has the second-lowest rate in the country of uninsured children so Iowa does a lot better than other states across the country," Pollack says, "but it’s still no consolation for the 38,000 in the state who are uninsured." Nearly all of the 38,000 uninsured children in Iowa live in a family where at least one parent works full-time, all year long and Mike Owen of the Iowa Policy Project says that’s significant.

"These are children in working families," Owen says. "These are children in families that do not have access to health care coverage through their employment." In March of 2009, the federal government’s support of state children’s health insurance program will expire and Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, expects the new president to support extending it.

"I just have to say I’m looking forward to working with President-elect Obama to make health care access to all children — and adults — a reality and I think I may get to see that," Boswell says. "That’s my hope." Just under half of the uninsured Iowa kids live in families that currently qualify for government-paid health insurance for those kids through the state’s HAWK-I program, but their parents haven’t signed them up for it.

You can read the Families USA report online. Families U.S.A. bills itself as a group that lobbies for health care consumers.

 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

ACLU setlles case of Leon "church parking" ban

November 24, 2008 By

The American Civil Liberties Union has settled a case brought by two residents of the southern Iowa town of Leon over parking restrictions. A-C-L-U president, Ben Stone, says Donald Jones and David Darling sued the city when it banned parking in front of their home under a "church parking only" ordinance.

Stone says the city of Leon has agreed to alter the parking situation to make it a "no parking zone" for all cars. Stone says it’s not the ideal situation, but better than the "religious discrimination" in the "church only" parking zone.

Stone says they just wanted everyone to be treated the same. He says they were seeking to let the city know they couldn’t treat the men differently just because they didn’t go to the church across the street. Stone says this is an unusual case.

"It’s the only time we’ve ever seen this type of situation and… we hope it doesn’t become widespread, because frankly if churches could just have cities make the streets their parking area, they wouldn’t have to buy any parking lots," Stone says. Stone says Leon has two thousand residents and 16 churches, and his client’s home was the only residence that was entirely affected by the parking ban. 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Religion

Bobcat season ended quickly

November 24, 2008 By

Bobcat Iowa trappers and hunters took the state quota of 200 bobcats this year less than one month after the season opened. The bobcat season covered the southern two tiers of the state.

Woodbury County conservation officer Stacey Sisco says this was the first year her county was able to participate in the season. She says the animals are migrating to the Loess Hills area in greater numbers every year.

"Since 2000, every year we’ve had more and more bobcats turned in from trappers that are trying to harvest raccoons and coyotes and stuff," Sisco said. The Department of Natural Resources says the bobcats are coming to Iowa because of the state’s grassy pastures and abundant food, primarily small rodents.

The bobcat was labeled an endangered species in Iowa from 1977 to 2000, but now bobcat sightings are common. Sisco says the bobcat trapping season is held to keep the population in check and to decrease the risk of disease.

"With any species, if you let them get too populated, they’re going to get a disease," Sisco said. "With bobcats, a single bout of Feline Leukemia can wipe a bunch of them out." Bobcats are considered a fur-bearing animal and are sold for their skins. This year, nearly two dozen bobcats were tagged in Woodbury, Monona and Harrison counties in western Iowa.

 

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation Tagged With: ,
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