Small numbers of outstanding mail ballots are legally arriving after the election in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, where the candidates remain locked in a tight race. In unofficial returns, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks leads Democrat Rita Hart by 282 votes out of 393,000 counted. The winner will succeed retiring Rep. Dave Loebsack. Iowa will count absentee ballots that were postmarked by this past Monday and arrive by noon this coming Monday…as well as any provisional ballots that are deemed eligible. Johnson County has received 28 absentee ballots thus far to be counted. Two other counties carried by Hart–Clinton and Jefferson–have a combined total of 18 absentee ballots to be counted.
President Trump received more than 70% of the votes cast on Election Day in Iowa, easily overcoming Joe Biden’s substantial lead among those who voted early. Unofficial results show Trump captured Iowa’s six electoral votes by winning more than 53% of the overall vote, defeating Biden by about 138,700 votes. A record number of people voted early in person and through the mail. Those voters heavily favored Biden. Trump entered Election Day facing a deficit of 161,000 votes but ended up picking up about 300,000. Only 704,000 votes were cast at polling places Tuesday, a 230,000 decrease from 2016 as voters embraced other voting options…but again, overall, an all-time record number of votes cast in this year’s general election.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is launching a media campaign to encourage people to take action to reduce the state’s increasing number of coronavirus infections…but at a news conference yesterday, she said she will not impose any mandates or new rules. Reynolds also said the success of Republican candidates in the general election was proof that most Iowans support her decision to not require masks and quickly end most restrictions on businesses. Reynolds says the media campaign will begin next week and will include newspaper, television and radio advertising.
U.S. voters went to the polls divided on how they see President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a surprising twist. In places where the virus is most common now, Trump enjoyed enormous support. An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas.
Human remains found inside a submerged car have been identified as an Iowa man who went missing more than seven years ago. The remains found in water near the town of Hampton were those of 22-year-old Ethan Kazmerzak. He was last seen on Sept. 15, 2013. Kazmerzak’s car was found Oct. 26 of this year by a dive team. Franklin County Sheriff Aaron Dodd said details about how the vehicle and Kazmerzak ended up in the water will be released after the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s office concludes its investigation.
The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of a man serving life in prison for the 2017 death of his infant son, who was found dead in a maggot-infested baby swing. The court this week rejected 31-year-old Zachary Koehn’s appeal of his first-degree murder and child endangerment convictions. Koehn had argued the convictions should be vacated because, among other things, there was insufficient evidence to convict him and that the jury was given incorrect instructions. Officials have said Koehn’s son, Sterling, was found dead in his parents’ Alta Vista apartment and that he had been in the same diaper for up to two weeks.
The Waterloo Black Hawks were to open the United States Hockey League season tonight against the Omaha Lancers…but yesterday came word that this weekend’s pair of games would be postponed until a later date. Team officials consulted with city officials and county health officials about playing at city-owned Young Arena, and the decision was made to postpone due to public safety issues in light of the number of COVID-19 cases in the county. No make-up dates have been announced.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the eight public and private school districts in Black Hawk County released a joint statement yesterday, acknowledging that the positivity rate in the county has reached 20 percent, the threshold at which schools may seek approval from the state to shift to full online learning. But none will be doing that, because they say schools are not seeing the same increase…in fact, absentee rates are right around pre-COVID numbers.
The Waterloo schools followed up with more data, noting that while the county is experiencing a higher rate of positivity, Waterloo schools only has 0.29% positivity of in-person students and 1.3% positivity of staff. Stated the other way, 99.71% of Waterloo students do not have COVID…nor does 98.7% of staff.
Linn County is reminding residents living in unincorporated areas of the county that they must place organic debris from the August derecho in the right-of-way by Monday to guarantee removal by the county’s debris removal contractor. In addition, the four self-haul organic debris drop-off sites will close permanently the following week…on Monday, November 16 at 5 p.m.
