Views from the Linn County Auditor

Public Testing of Voting Machines for Upcoming City Elections

Prior to every election, we select a day for the public to observe the testing of the voting machines.  For the upcoming city elections to be held on November 6^th, our public testing day was October 23^rd   Unfortunately, only one person, a photographer from The Gazette, joined us for the testing. 

 

I just purchased a video camera and I thought this might be a good opportunity to document the testing for the public, as well as, the staff.  This is my first attempt at being a film director for a documentary that is published on the web. 

 

This video is an accurate portrayal of the testing that is performed on each voting machine by employees of the Office of Linn County Auditor & Commissioner of Elections.  It's about 33 minutes in length.  Your comments on its value are welcome.  Please reply to auditor@linncounty.org --Joel@6:15pm

 

123,233 registered to vote in City Elections

As of Noon on Monday, October 29th, we have 123,233 citizens registered to vote in the 17 cities of Linn County.  Obviously, if you don't live in a city, you don't get to vote in this election.  BUT that doesn't mean you can't encourage others to vote.  --Joel @ 12:48pm

Milestone reached: 25 of 98 profiles posted

Jim Doyle of Ely - running for Mayor against Dale Stanek - is the 25th candidate to provide a candidate profile.

I will accept candidate profiles through Noon on Election Day, but I won’t guarantee they will get posted if received on Election Day.  –Joel @ 11:25am

Opening remarks at The Gazette's forum for At Large Candidates (Cedar Rapids)

Good afternoon!

 

The upcoming City Elections will be held on Tuesday, November 6^th.  Polls will open at 7am and close at 8pm. 

 

If you wish to vote in city elections, your voter registration application must be received in the Auditor’s Office no later than 5pm on Friday, October 26^th.  If you are already registered to vote in Linn County, but you have moved to a different address, you can change your address today or wait until election day to change it. 

 

The Auditor’s Office will offer absentee ballot voting until 5pm on Monday, November 5^th.  If you have received an absentee ballot, you can mail the absentee ballot to the Auditor’s Office (please ensure it’s postmarked November 5^th or before) OR you can return the absentee ballot to the Auditor’s Office on Election Day OR hand over the absentee ballot at your precinct and request to vote in-person at the precinct.

 

In Cedar Rapids, we have three races and 10 candidates.  We have 4 candidates running for Council At Large, 3 candidates running for Council District 2, and 3 candidates running for Council District 4.

 

To avoid the December 4^th Runoff Election, a candidate must garner 50% + 1 vote.  If no candidate garners 50% + 1, then the top two vote getters will face off in the December 4^th runoff election. 

 

As of today, October 24^th, the Auditor’s Office has received 380 absentee ballot requests for the Cedar Rapids election.  Of those requested, 154 have been for Council At Large, 156 have been for District 2, and 70 have been for District 4.  Obviously, the District races also vote for the At Large candidate.  A total of 230 absentee ballots have been returned.

 

For the November 8^th, 2005 election, the voter turnout in Cedar Rapids was 30% and 9% of those were absentee ballots.  This was the first election for the new charter government.

 

For the November 4^th, 2003 election, the voter turnout in Cedar Rapids was 43% and 10% of those were absentee ballots.  This was the last election of the commission form of government and included the riverboat gambling referendum.

 

For the November 6^th, 2001 election, the voter turnout in Cedar Rapids 46% and 10% of those were absentee ballots. 

 

Unfortunately, the voter turnout percentage trended downward from 2001 to 2005 even though we had more candidates on the ballot in 2005 than ever before. 

 

For the first time in any county election, my office has undertaken a project to post city candidate profiles on our web site.  Our web site is located at www.linncountyauditor.org  Go to the site and click on the Elections Services link.  You will find profiles on 24 of the 98 city candidates running for office in Linn County.  As of October 24^th, those profiles have been viewed at least 532 times since we started posting the profiles on Monday, October 15^th.

 

If you have any questions, I would happy to answer them at this time or after the forum.

  

### --Joel @ 4:05pm

My comments to the TCRC on October 22nd

Last night, 40+ citizens made public comments to the Temporary County Redistricting Commission during the public hearing on Plan G.  The Gazette published a story about the meeting in today's paper and WMT Radio interviewed me this morning.

 

My comments and the speakers' written comments and documentation are available to the public.  To obtain copies of the comments, please contact the Board of Supervisors' Office at 892-5000.

 

Note:  Please excuse the informality of my writing.  The text below was originally only for my speech and not for publication; however, the Commission requested a copy so I am making it available on my blog, too.

 

***********************************

Dear Commission:

 

Tonight, I come before you to give you 3 perspectives on Plan G.

 

My 1^st perspective emanates from being the Linn County Auditor & Commissioner of Elections.  On May 30^th, my GIS/Mapping staff prepared Scenarios A, B, C, and D.  This was well before the July 24^th election and prior to the Commission before formed.  The purpose of creating the scenarios was to ensure that 5 districts could be formed without the need to divide precincts – we have 86 precincts in Linn County and I was certain many scenarios could be created without dividing any precincts. 

 

These scenarios – maps – were prepared without any consideration for the incumbent supervisors or any potential candidates.  In fact, until *** Hogan from the Gazette asked for the candidate precinct information on the incumbents and candidates, I did not know for certain and my staff did not know for certain which incumbent or candidate resided in which precinct.

 

Scenarios A, B, C, and D were created as objectively as possible by my staff without direction from me EXCEPT for complying with the statutes and promulgated rules of the State of Iowa.

 

My 2^nd perspective emanates from being the Mayor of Robins.  At the last meeting of the Commission, various Commissioners stated that Robins should be in the same district as Marion because we had much in common with Marion. 

 

At the same time, I heard various Commissioners indicate that Mount Vernon did not have much in common with Marion.  And I heard Assistant County Attorney Jarvis indicate the process of redistricting was more than just a mathematical formula, i.e., the Commission could consider information not prohibited by the Iowa Code, e.g., they could consider the trade area between 2 cities, but they could not consider the addresses of the incumbents. 

 

Under this pretext, I offer the following information relative to the City of Robins:

 

1.     Robins receives all of its water and sanitary sewer services from Cedar Rapids.  CR has no precincts in the same district as Robins under Plan G, but did under Plan D.

2.     Robins has 28E annexation agreements with Hiawatha and Cedar Rapids, but no annexation agreement with Marion.  Hiawatha has no precincts in the same district as Robins under Plan G, but did under Plan D.

3.     Robins and Hiawatha share major arterial roads with Hiawatha, i.e., Center Point Road and Tower Terrace Road.  And CR shares Council ST, which becomes Mentzer Road with Robins.

4.     I don’t have hard data to prove it, but I’m guessing the majority of people living in Robins a>  work in Cedar Rapids and b>  shop in Cedar Rapids. 

5.     Within the last 2 weeks, Robins annexed 500+ acres of land in Monroe Township.  Monroe was in the same district as Robins under Plan D, but is not under Plan G.

6.     Robins has a 28E agreement with Alburnett to share building inspection services and Alburnett is contained within Otter Creek Township.  Under Plan G, Alburnett is in a different district than Robins.  Under Plan D, its in the same district as Robins.

7.     Robins is the 3^rd largest city in Linn County based upon land area.  Robins is the 5^th largest city based upon population, i.e., we’re behind CR, Marion, and Hiawatha, but catching up to Mount Vernon.

 

If you’re going to base decisions on relationships between cities, I want you to at least understand the relationship that Robins has with its immediate neighbors versus our relationship with Marion.  Plan D complemented our relationships with our neighbors; Plan G does not.

 

Finally, my 3^rd perspective emanates from being the former chair of the Linn County Democratic Party and a democratic party activist. 

 

There are 8 partisan county-wide elected officials in Linn County.  Each is a Democrat.  There are 11 state legislators representing Linn County – 9 of the 11 are Democrats.

 

As of last week, there are 139K registered voters in Linn County.  Of those 139K, 46K are Dems, 36K are Reps, and 57K are NPs.  I have yet to hear a single local, state, or national political pundit indicate that 2008 is NOT going to be a banner year for Democrats. 

 

If you select Plan G, you are handing our opponents a campaign issue that didn’t exist under Plan D.  I have to ask:  Why?

 

###  --Joel @ 1:10pm

Wanted: City candidates' profiles

On Friday, The Gazette was the first to report on my web page for candidates to post their profiles. By noon, Josie Kohler of KGAN-TV had interviewed me and her report was carried at 6pm and 10pm. This afternoon, P Thomas Larson became the 19th candidate to provide a profile. Only 79 more to go....

Metro High School students learn about voter registration

On Thursday, October 18^th, I was invited to give a presentation (see www.linncounty.org/files/download.asp?type=Adobe&mode=view&I=3894) to students at Metro High School.  This was my first invitation to a classroom since being elected.  I wasn’t certain I could talk for 40 minutes about voter registration, but throw in a few questions and walk through filling out a voter registration application and before you know it, you’re out of time.

 

Last week I attended an open house at Metro and discovered the students have been busy researching the 2008 presidential candidates.  They prepared a caucus guide (see www.linncounty.org/files/download.asp?type=Adobe&mode=view&I=3895 ) that my office is making available to the public.  I think the public will find this guide useful.  Please let me know what you think.  –Joel @ 5:40pm

You're invited! Come watch us test the voting machines

A public test of the voting equipment to be used in the upcoming November 6^th City Election will begin at 9am on Tuesday, October 23rd, in the Elections Depot (823 3^rd ST SW - Cedar Rapids).  The testing will continue until all voting machines have been tested. 

This test will include the Optical Scan machines and the Touch Screen machines.  This public test is open to all interested Linn County residents.  This election is to select members for the city councils.  --Joel @ 5:45pm

First 5 city candidate profiles posted

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon creating a candidate profile table which contains the candidates' nomination papers and allows space for a link to their profile. Even though the candidates didn't receive my request for a profile until Saturday, I received 5 via email by Noon on Monday. As of midnight last night, I'd received 3 more. I appreciate the responsiveness of the candidates. You can see the profiles at http://www.linncounty.org/content.asp?Page_Id=936&Dept_Id=6 Joel @ 8:25pm

Open letter to city candidates in Linn County

 

 

October 12, 2007

 

Dear City Candidates:

 

One of the frequent comments I heard before the recent school elections was that no information was available on the school board candidates.  Many precinct election officials believe that a lack of candidate information is the primary reason so few citizens vote in school board elections.

 

While we almost always have a higher voter turnout for city elections, the turnout is nothing to brag about when compared to the elections for governor and president.  While the media attention on a few city races may highlight some candidates, the overall majority of candidates are unknown to the voters and voter turnout suffers as a result.

 

I would like to give voters the opportunity to learn more about you by hosting your candidate profile on my web site, i.e., on www.linncountyauditor.org. I am enclosing a sample of a candidate profile that is posted on the Story County Auditor’s web site at https://apps.storycounty.com/CandidateProfiles/

 

The information contained on the candidate profiles would be an optional submission by you, the candidate, and posted with your permission. The County of Linn and the Linn County Auditor's Office will not attest to any of the information contained in the profile. The County of Linn and the Linn County Auditor's Office are not promoting any candidate for any position. The purpose of the candidate profile would be to provide information to voters.

 

If you are interested in taking advantage of this offer, please provide a candidate profile via USPS mail or send to auditor@linncounty.org

 

Respectfully submitted,  

 

 

 

Joel D Miller

Linn County Auditor &

Commissioner of Elections

 

 

Enclosure:

          Sample candidate profile

 

Joel @ 3:00pm (letter mailed to individual candidates via USPS on 10/12)

Absentee ballots available for November 6th city elections

Absentee ballots for the Regular City Elections on November 6, 2007, are now available from the Linn County Elections Office. 

Voters must either vote in person at the Elections Office or send in an official absentee ballot request form to receive a mail-in ballot.  The Linn County Elections Office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 5:00 pm and is physically located on the 2^nd floor of the Linn County Administrative Office Building - 930 1^st Street SW - Cedar Rapids.

 Absentee Ballot request forms are available at  www.linncounty.org (Elections/Voting). The forms should be mailed to:

P. O. Box 1328,
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-1328.

Contact the Election’s Office at 892-5300 or via email at elections@linncounty.org  with any questions regarding absentee voting.  --Joel @ 4:00pm