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2004 US Presidential Election: Iowa
November 03, 2004Eastern Iowa UpsetThe stunning upset in Eastern Iowa was for Iowa House District 80. Challenger Nathan Reichert defeated long-time Republican Representative Barry Brauns. Final Tally : NATHAN REICHERT (D) 6,553 52% BARRY BRAUNS ® 6,047 48% And in Muscatine, Iowa the race for the County Board of Supervisors ended up with a one vote difference : DYANN ROBY ® 8,705 50% KAS KELLY (D) 8,704 50% The provisional ballots will undoubtedly decide this squeaker. It does go to show that one vote does make a difference. 2073 of 2079 (99%) PrecinctsGEORGE W. BUSH ® (i) 741,325 50% JOHN KERRY (D) 725,700 49% What can I say? I was just plain wrong about this. I honestly thought Kerry was going to carry Iowa. Bush is leading in Iowa now! 88% CountedI was paying attention to the percentage.. It was 82% 1000+ Kerry Vote Lead, 84% 785 Kerry Vote Lead, 86% 1365 Bush Vote Lead, 88% 2821 Bush Vote Lead, 89% 3529 Bush Vote Lead This is a potential Bush state now. November 02, 20041217 of 2079 (59%) PrecinctsJOHN KERRY (D) 548,081 51% GEORGE W. BUSH ® (i) 518,635 48% I think it is safe to call Iowa for Kerry. There are about 300,000 more votes left to count, and I don’t see them falling all to Bush at the last minute. 1077 of 2079 (52%) PrecinctsJOHN KERRY (D) 519,160 51% GEORGE W. BUSH ® (i) 487,302 48% Senate : CHARLES GRASSLEY ® (i) 648,980 68% ARTHUR SMALL (D) 283,821 30% Representative, Iowa First : JIM NUSSLE ® (i) 126,990 54% BILL GLUBA (D) 104,401 44% Representative, Iowa Second : JAMES LEACH ® (i) 106,201 59% DAVE FRANKER (D) 70,357 39% Blink and You Will Miss ItPosted by Buster - InMuscatine.com Some Iowa County Auditors have announced the completion of Absentee vote counting. Votes were tabulated earlier in the day for the absentees, so preliminary figures should be available for SOME precincts near-immediately after the 9:00 p.m. poll closing. Absentee voting is reported to be heavy, so I am of the impression Iowa will be called by 9:05 p.m. and be a memory by 9:15 unless something goes wrong. MoveOn Chased Away from Polling PlacesPosted by Buster - InMuscatine WOC-1420 AM during their 1:00 pm newscast reported MoveOn people were attempting to distribute flyers at Davenport, Iowa polling places. According to the report, they were “chased away”. MoveOn in IowaPosted by Buster - InMuscatine From WOI TV, Des Moines : DES MOINES, Iowa Auditors across the state are reporting volunteers with a liberal activists group are getting to close to polling places. The Polk County and Linn County auditors say volunteers with Move On are approaching voters to find out if they support President Bush or Democrat John Kerry. Latest Zogby Iowa Poll: 50% Kerry, 45% BushJust reported on MSNBC TV. It seems the polsters at Zogby are still working:
Poll conducted through yesterday; 4.1% margin of error. Note: this is NOT an exit poll … it’s a poll of likely voters completed through yesterday. ReachingPosted by Buster - InMuscatine.com I have heard about reaching across the aisle, but this is ridiculous : DES MOINES, Iowa - Some Iowa voters have received automated campaign calls asking their support for an Indiana congressman who opposes tolls on the new Ohio River bridges. He says it’s not aimed at central Iowa, unless they want to build a new Ohio River bridge there. Not-so-smart MovePosted by Buster - InMuscatine.com From KCRG TV, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Full disclosure : Steve Soboroff used to go by the “on-air” name of Steve Bridges at KWPC-AM/KFMH-FM in Muscatine, Iowa. He was also manager/part owner of those stations, and is no stranger to controversy. Further, calling Steve “popular” is a stretch. He is owner of KCJJ, a low-power AM station.) An Eastern Iowa radio station has come under fire for a DJ’s comment about when Iowans should head to the polls. The DJ insists it was just a joke, but the Republican Party isn’t laughing. Popular disc jockey Steve Soboroff, know as “Captain Steve” to his loyal listeners at KCJJ in Iowa City, never dreamed his little joke would get this far. Soboroff told his Monday morning audience due to the record amount of voters, Democrats will vote on Tuesday and Republicans on Wednesday Thursday and Friday. “It was said in jest, it was very apparent that it was said in jest. I also said that Republicans were charging 5 and a quarter at the polls for the pencils to fill in the ballots,” said a chuckling Soboroff. It may have been intended as a joke, but the local Republicans think it could be damaging misinformation. “It shouldn’t be a laughing matter at all,” said Johnson County Republican Co-Chair Todd Versteegh. The Johnson County Republicans have filed an ethics complaint with the state election board. They’re also investigating steps to file a complaint with the FCC and the Federal Election Commission. The republicans say they’re appalled, and believe the comment may have confused elderly voters. “This close to an election, this type of behavior should not be tolerated at all by either Republicans or Democrats,” said Versteegh. The Republicans are also upset that Democratic County Supervisor Terrence Neuzil was on the air at the time. But Neuzil told TV9, Soboroff’s comment was obviously a joke. Just to be clear, everyone; Democrats, Republicans and all others will all head to the polls Tuesday. Mad CrushPosted by Buster - InMuscatine.com From the Des Moines Register : County auditors’ offices in Iowa were under siege Monday, reporting lines of voters at the counters casting absentee ballots and calling on the phones with questions. “It’s chaos,” said Linda Demry, the Appanoose County auditor. “People will come in and say, ‘I’ve never voted before - can you help me?’ “ In Lee County, Auditor Anne Pedersen said she’s never seen anything like it in her 21 years in office. On Monday, as soon as the auditor’s doors opened, the phones started ringing and residents arrived to cast absentee ballots. On both sides, voters “have a very emotional feeling about their candidate,” Pedersen said. “They want to make sure their votes get cast and counted.” Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver predicted 1.4 million Iowans out of the 2.1 million registered will cast votes by the time polls close. He urged Iowans to make sure they are voting in their correct precincts to lessen problems with provisional ballots, and said first-time voters may be asked for identification. Anyone who is still in line by 9 p.m. is entitled to vote, Culver said, no matter how long it takes. As of Oct. 25, the secretary of state’s office reported 287,037 absentee ballots returned out of 428,972 requested. Fund RaisingFrom the Muscatine Journal (Warning : Link will go bad soon!) MUSCATINE, Iowa - Although Muscatine County is distributed nearly even among registered Republicans and Democrats, it’s the Republican candidates who are getting most of the money. Posted by Buster - InMuscatine.com A review of Federal Election Commission (FEC) records shows approximately $164,139 in political contributions coming from donors in Muscatine County, 97 percent of which went to Republican candidates and groups. The figures are a sharp contrast to the overall state totals of 35.9 percent of contributions going to Democrat candidates and groups and 63.7 percent going to Republican candidates and groups. The figures were listed for the 2004 election cycle, covering the last two years. Muscatine County has 9,960 registered Republicans, 7,717 registered Democrats and 11,106 registered Independents. Absentee VotingFrom the Quad-City Times : Still, the intensity was high as a sharply divided Quad-Cities and a sharply divided nation prepared to go to the polls to elect a president for the first time since the contested election of 2000. Already, 25,000 people in Scott County had voted by absentee, more than a third of the total number who voted for president in the county four years ago. And yet, the polls are still jammed with people. It will be an interesting day, and certainly history is being made. Posted by Buster - InMuscatine.com Morning in IowaOne word description : Lines. The sun is barely up but people are jamming the polling places of Eastern Iowa. Contrary to media reports, most of these people are NOT senior citizens. One thing is certain : Pollworkers are not going to die of boredom this day. November 01, 2004Huge GOP Push In IowaMSNBC TV is reporting that the GOP / Bush campaign has made 250,000 phone calls and knocked on 220,000 doors in just the past 48 hours, and that that number may reach 500,000 by the time the polls open. In a state with only two million registered voters, this would mean nearly 1 of every 4 registered Iowans would have been contacted by the GOP. Part of Karl Rove’s strategy is to win two states Gore carried in 2000 … and Iowa would be a prime candidate for doing so if this outreach effort bears fruit. Both campaigns were in Iowa today … Bush is still there … and early voting has been under way for 30 days. Come tomorrow, keep your eye on Iowa. |