People Are Asking: School Board Vacancy

As you may know, the Iowa City Community School District has a new vacancy on the school board.

The intent of state law is for the school board to appoint a new member to serve until the next school election, which in this case is September 8, 2015.  This is what happened in the summer of 2011 when board member Michael Cooper resigned. Jan Leff was appointed to a very short term, and the vacancy was filled in the September 2011 election. Similar vacancies have happened in the county’s other districts in recent years.

There is no option for the public to petition for a special election, as there is with vacancies in city or county office. There is also no direct option for the school board to vote in favor of holding a special election.

The only way a special election would occur would be if the school board fails to make an appointment within 30 days of Hoelscher’s resignation (by July 24), either through inability to reach consensus or through inaction. If a special election would be required, the likely date would be Tuesday, August 26. The cost of the election would be paid by the school district.

The ICCSD school board has scheduled a special meeting for 8:30 AM Tuesday, July 1 to discuss the vacancy.  Questions about applying for the vacancy should be directed to the school district.

High School Senior Works Election Day

With the June 3 primary over, our office would like to thank all our poll workers and staff for all the long hours and hard work through the election. We’re giving one of our poll workers an extra thank you.

When most people picture poll workers, they think of “little old ladies.” And it’s true most of our workers are retirees. But our crew is becoming more diverse and on Tuesday we had our first ever high school student work an Election Day. Karalee Smith, a 18 year old Clear Creek Amana senior, put in a 16 hour day at Oxford City Hall.

We hope to add more high school students to our pool of experienced workers for this fall’s general election. Applications are available here. For more information, please contact our office at elections(at)co.johnson.ia.us or 319-356-6004.

Good morning!

We're a little sleepy but we're open for business. Our last precinct reported at 9:53 PM. Thanks for all the compliments. 

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks also to all the candidates who didn't make it. It takes a lot to put your name in front of the people and a campaign is a big personal sacrifice.

Special thanks to all the poll workers and my staff, who were working till almost midnight bringing back supplies and double-checking numbers. We had a couple small corrections on write-ins and uncontested races, but no changes in candidate totals in contested races.

Our provisional ballot board meets Thursday at 1 PM. We don't have a count yet on how many ballots there will be. We had 3 as of 6 PM yesterday and we know there were more before 9. There's not enough to change any races, but we count every ballot we can.

We could still get some mail but the odds shrink each day. They needed to be postmarked Monday or earlier. Two ballots were in today's mail, but both were postmarked yesterday and can't be counted.

All the results are unofficial until the canvass, where the Board of Supervisors officially certifies the results, on Tuesday, June 10. After that we start getting ready for November 4! We also have a bond election in the Solon School District on September 9.

Election Day Liveblog

There's a lot going on so let's just put it all in one place.

10:58 PM: Polls closed almost 2 hours, but staff & pollworkers still working on supply check in. Thanks to everyone for the long day!

10:35 PM: Some minor corrections, none affecting candidate totals. One more total voter, some write-ins.

9:53 PM: Our last precinct reported! Stay tuned. A lot of precincts phoned results in and corrections still possible.

8:53 PM: We use http://time.gov/ for our official closing time

8:40 PM: Our returns crew is gathering in our ballot room, won't be long now! Most of the action from here on out will be on Twitter and the results page of the Official site.

7:46 PM: Looks like the worst of the severe weather will miss us (whew).

7:12 PM: Reports of polls closed in western Iowa due to weather emergencies. Reminder: state law won't let us extend hours if we have to close for severe weather. This from the Woodbury County Auditor:

Sgt. Bluff poll workers were allowed to pull their vehicles in the polling place before the weather hit. pic.twitter.com/oqA3iq5Nhi
— Pat Gill (@WCAudRec) June 3, 2014

6:53 PM: We've been busy but not too busy for 6 PM turnout update: 5828 voters, 6.7% turnout. We're sending extra ballots, mainly Republican, to several precincts. We may be the People's Republic but we're also one of the top 10 Republican counties in the state.

4:17 PM: Thanks to the City Channel 4 crew for broadcasting election returns! The cable guys are here testing now to be ready for 9:00. Clarification: the returns themselves will be on channel 5. City council called dibs on Channel 4.

3:32 PM: Our 3:00 voter total is 3543 for turnout of 4.1% http://www.johnson-county.com/auditor/returns/1406turnout.htm 2187 Democrats, 1358 Republicans. Next turnout update at 6.

2:50 PM. Planning ahead in case power goes out. Our normal plan is to post returns on our regular web site jcauditor.com. If that site is down, please check this blog, our Twitter feed @jcauditor or our Facebook page.  Returns for federal, state and legislative races will be available at the Secretary of State's web site http://www.electionresults.sos.iowa.gov/  (not live till later tonight).

2:00 PM: Oops! Fixed a typo on 11 AM turnout. New total is 1777. While we're waiting for the 3:00 update, we're making plans for bad weather. Vote now before you have to worry about it!

12:11 PM: Our 11 AM check in is done. We've seen 1758 for 1.2% turnout. We have a complete party breakdown this time:1062 Democrats and 695 Republicans. Turnout is ahead of 2010 but behind 2006.

11:42 AM: Thanks to my staff for the long, hard work through election season and today. We have a potluck tradition  on Election Day, and this year we're kicking it up a notch with a grillout. Here's our grillmaster Mark Kistler (his day job is as our real estate deputy).



10:09 AM. Our computer problems are resolved. The problem was getting the second voter lookup computer at each site to connect to the main master computer at the site. We always had at least one up and running, and the issues were only with voter lookup and not with the ballot readers. Sorry for any delays.

9:52 AM: 17 ballots arrived in today's mail. That leaves 76 out. DON'T mail them today! You need to BRING them in to our office.  You can also turn them in unvoted at the poll. If you lost your absentee ballot, you can vote a provisional ballot.

Also, our final 9 AM count was 836 voters (0.96%). 489 Democrats, 263 Republicans. Numbers don't add up because three precincts didn't get us a party breakdown; it's the first primary where we've done that.

9:40 AM: With one precinct left to report 828 voters (0.95%). Compares to 1007 (1.3%) in 2006, and 720 (0.8%) in 2010. Next update 11 AM.

9:01 AM: Our first turnout update is underway! Watch this space. If you want to compare to past elections, look at 2006 and 2010 for the big picture. But remember: the precinct lines have changed since those elections.

8:20 AM: The National Weather Service has forecast the possibility of severe weather in Johnson County this afternoon.

In the event of severe weather such as tornado warnings, precinct officials are authorized to close polling places and seek shelter until the severe weather has passed. State law does not allow polling hours to be extended to make up for such closures. The urgent nature of weather warnings means our office will not be able to announce closings in advance.

For precedent, see this report on a similar event in the 2006 primary election.

8:07 AM: Precinct officials are experiencing computer problems at a number of Johnson County precincts. Our office is aware of the issues and working to resolve them. We thank the voters for their patience

They Say The Voting Site Is Right On Broadway

OK, so we changed the words a little. But only for accuracy. The voting site WILL be right on Broadway, 2105 Broadway to be exact, at the Broadway Neighborhood Center this Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m.

We'll also be at City High Wednesday. We won't be voting but we will be registering our youngest voters at 11:45. Anyone in Iowa can register as soon as they're 17 1/2. You have to be 18 to actually vote, but even if you're not old enough for the June 3 primary you can still get registered for the November general election.

Know Your Votemobile

Quick quiz: Which set of wheels is the Votemobile?

A.



WRONG. While the Batmobile is extremely cool, it's only a two seater and a Votemobile requires three workers.

B.



WRONG. Though we're hoping to work black smoke and white smoke into our election results.

C.



RIGHT! Like Bruce Wayne and Jorge Bergoglio, it also has another name: the Rural Health and Safety Clinic of Greater Johnson County. The Rural Health and Safety folks are sharing it with us and we're hoping we'll have more Votemobile sites this fall.

The Votemobile will be at 1st Avenue Hy-Vee this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Batmobile and Popemobile, as far as we know, will not.

We're also voting at a pizza place this weekend. The City High & West High Jazz Ensembles will be playing Saturday Night on the Ped Mall. The closest spot to the music we could find was Wedge Pizza, so you can vote and dine (or just vote) from 5 to 8 p.m.

Changes for Care Facility Ballots

In a step toward increasing the options for voters, Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert is revising office policy on mailed absentee ballots for voters in care facilities.

Under prior interpretations of state law, voters in care facilities, no matter their level of ability or their personal wishes, were not mailed absentee ballots on request. Voters requesting mailed ballots were instead required to vote on one specified day at the facility, with a bipartisan team of poll workers, under a procedure designed for nursing home residents.

After review of state law, Weipert has determined that residents of independent living and assisted care apartments within facilities that also include a nursing home unit may vote by mail. This has been a frequent request from voters. Only residents of the nursing home unit will vote with the bipartisan team.

All voters, including those in any level of care facility, may still vote early in person at the auditor’s office or a satellite site, or at the polls on election day. Curbside voting is available both early and on Election Day for voters unable to leave their cars.