Stories

Incumbents were sharply rebuked Tuesday night in elections all over Iowa, matching a national trend that’s giving Republicans a glimmer of hope going into 2010. Iowa’s municipal elections are non-partisan, so it will be hard for either party to claim victory. But after years of Democratic dominance of election night, an evening where most high-profile races saw incumbents roundly rebuked is being celebrated in Republican circles.

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 [...]

A new report ranks Iowa fifth among all states for voter turnout during the 2008 general election.
The study by George Mason University’s U.S. Elections Project gave top billing to Minnesota. It was followed by Wisconsin, Maine, New Hampshire and Iowa. In the Hawkeye State more people voted in this election than in any in the [...]

A recount for Iowa House District 37, an area that encompasses primarily northeastern Cedar Rapids, is set to begin Monday morning. When certified by the Linn County Board of Supervisors Nov. 12, Republican challenger Renee Schulte had a 14 votes edge over Democratic incumbent Art Staed.
When requesting the recount on Nov. 14, Staed indicated his [...]

While their voices won’t be counted among the official results this election day, third graders at Starry Elementary School in Marion are nonetheless casting ballots for the presidential candidate of their choice.

ANALYSIS:

If John McCain is going to win Iowa, it will likely happen Monday.

And if Barack Obama is going to win Iowa, it’s already happened. Depending on how you look at it, it happened in the past six weeks, or it happened starting two years ago.

Record early voting and Election Day voter registration could increase the impact of ballot challenges on Iowa’s seven electoral votes.

With only eight weeks to go before the presidential elections, Iowans are going to the polls today for school board elections.

It’s the last time that will happen in a presidential year. Changes in state law take effect in 2009, and school board elections will be held every other year in odd-numbered years, rather than every year.

An uncontested political race is like a forfeit in sports. It helps the won-loss record, but it’s no fun for the fans and, even though it’s the other team’s fault, feels vaguely unsportsmanlike.

There’s 125 ballgames this fall in the battle for the Iowa Legislature. More players may yet get on the field, but as of [...]

If you’re watching the primary returns next Tuesday night, you may want to keep a calculator handy. Iowa law requires a candidate to win 35 percent of the vote to earn a nomination, but the percentages that get reported aren’t always the ones that matter.

If no candidate gets 35 percent, the party has to hold [...]

Part of an annual voter mailing from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office has been re-sent. Errors in a postal bar code were causing some cards to incorrectly get the Elvis treatment — return to sender, address unknown.