GOP vote bill draws fire (trying to shorten election hours in Iowa now!)

[cascadiance]

Tom Slockett, the county auditor for Johnson County, which just turned blue last election when Jim Leach got thrown out of office near the University of Iowa campus aptly describes the bill:

"Well, I guess were addressing a serious problem in this county - too many Democratic votes," said Tom Slockett, the county auditor.

Republicans must not have been too happy about losing Iowa and are trying to find other "creative" ways to win elections there I guess! Also bills there are dealing with trying to require paper trail election machines (though perhaps not paper ballots, though it's a little hard to tell from the text of the article) and a voter ID requirement too. Sounds like a Democratic Iowa legislature might be wise enough to keep from passing this though. Hopefully!


From: http://media.www.dailyiowan.com/media/storage/paper599/news/2007/02/06/Metro/Gop-Vote.Bills.Draw.Fire-2699852.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailyiowan.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

GOP vote bills draw fire
Mason Kerns -�The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 2/6/07 Section: Metro

When asked to sum up a Republican-sponsored proposal to close election polls in the state at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., Johnson County's top election official could only revert to sarcasm.

"Well, I guess were addressing a serious problem in this county - too many Democratic votes," said Tom Slockett, the county auditor.

Slockett, a Democrat, said Democratic voters - who dominate elections in Iowa City and its surrounding areas - tend to vote later in the day.

"Then we have working couples, married people with children, who get home from work late and have to take care of the kids," Slockett continued in humor. "And then they have the nerve to trouble our poll workers from 7 to 9 at night."

But bill sponsor Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, said the legislation is driven not by sheer partisanship but the practical difficulty of finding poll workers, especially in rural areas. Often, he pointed out, precinct officials - many of whom are elderly - must commit to working 14 to 16 hours on election day. Despite this assertion, the AARP is on record as lobbying against the measure.

"The bottom line is, there's plenty of time to vote," between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Johnson said. "We're not disenfranchising anybody."

Asked whether or not he believes that Democrats vote later, Johnson said, "Would that be because they get up later? If that's the case, Democrats are trying to pass tons of things to change our behaviors, like smoking bans in public places. These things are also very proscriptive."
...

[Hardrada]

1. Ocheyedan harbors some pretty nasty Christofascists!

They are undoubtedly pissed that their paltry Zeitgeist got thrown out with the trash last November.

[MUAD_DIB]

2. Time to make voting day a mandatory holiday or at the very least

make it a half day.

That'll stick in the Repubbies craw real good.