Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Regardless of assumptions made in an audit of the use of federal funds during his time as secretary of state, Gov. Chet Culver said Wednesday he is proud of the job he did.
“I am very proud of the fact that as secretary of state, we led the nation in voter participation,” Culver said at a press conference. “In terms of voter turnout, voter registration, we worked extremely hard for eight years to make polling sites more accessible, to make it easier for people to find their polling sites.”
Gov. Chet Culver
An independent audit commissioned by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) alleged that during the time Culver ran Iowa’s elections the state misspent more than $2 million in funds allocated as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The audit, conducted by West Des Moines-based Clifton Gunderson LLP, pointed to promotional programs that didn’t fit HAVA requirements and money paid for salaries and benefits without proper documentation, among other questionable expenditures.
After the audit was made public, Culver’s office released a statement saying many of the issues raised by the EAC resulted from federal guidelines being applied to Iowa only after many of the state’s HAVA programs were already completed.
“While some issues in the EAC report have already been settled, there are also several points of disagreement and the state will continue to work with the EAC to resolve these differences,” the statement said.
Culver expounded on that point to reporters.
“As a former government teacher, that’s something that I care passionately about — voter outreach, voter education,” he said. ” That’s what the Help America Vote Act required states to do. I’m not going to apologize for spending $300,000 or $400,000 to build ramps, to widen doors and to make every polling site in our state accessible to people with disabilities.”
The Help America Vote Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002 in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election. It’s goals were to replace punch card voting systems; create the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections; and establish minimum election administration standards.
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