Needing some help in Iowa

Brief History:

During the last legislative session, the Iowa Senate unanamously passed a piece of legislation that called for verifiable paper trails. It was supported by the ICLU, League of Women Voters, Secretary of State, AFSCME, AARP Iowa, Iowa State Education Association, UAW, Laborers, and AFL-CIO. Following passage, it was immediately messaged to the Iowa House (March 24, 2005).

The legislation has been stalled in a sub-committee of the State Government Committee since that time. This is do in large part to the efforts of the House Leadership (republican), Iowa State Association of Counties, and Iowa State Association of County Supervisors.

In May, Secretary of State Chet Culver presented the intention of local county officials in relation to the HAVA (Help America Vote Act). At that time 47 of Iowa's 99 counties stated their intention was to purchase DREs (touch-screen machines which would not produce a paper trail).

The Players:

The legislation in question is SF 351.

Here are the House Representatives assigned to the subcommittee:

• Libby Jacobs, Chair (R-female) - House District 60
  
• Carmine Boal (R-female) - House District 70
  
• Mary Gaskill (D-female) - House Distrct 93
  
• Sandy Greiner (R-female) - House District 89
  
• Todd Taylor (D-male) - House District 34
  
• Linda Upmeyer (R-female) - House District 12
  
• Roger Wendt (D-male) - House District 2
  

Clicking on the Representative's name will take you to that legislator's informational page, hosted by the state. Clicking on the district will open a PDF map showing the district boundaries, also hosted by the state.

The following Iowa newspapers publish in/near the districts that the above legislators represent:

Libby - Des Moines Register, Des Moines Business Record, Polk County Press Citizen

Boal - Des Moines Register, Altoona Herald, Polk County Press Citizen

Gaskill - Ottumwa Courier

Greiner - Washington Journal, Kalona News, Riverside Current, Wellman Advance

Taylor - Cedar Rapids Gazette

Upmeyer - Clear Lake Mirror Reporter, Forest City Summit and Britt News-Tribune, Corwith CWL Times, Garner Leader & Signal, Kanawha Reporter

Wendt - Sioux City Journal, Anthon Sioux Valley News, Danbury Review, Sioux City Globe (Catholic paper)


Action Request:

We need constituents to contact each of these legislators, urging them to move this piece of legislation out of the committee and onto the floor of the House.

We need a consistent letter campaign to each of these newspapers, outlining the problem, what's at stake, and why this issue is local to that particular paper. (Very important for the letter writers to make this important to the paper's local viewership -- it's their representative, their vote, their state, etc.)

We also need consitituents to contact Iowa House Leadership and urge them to bring this legislation out of committee and onto the House floor:

• Speaker Christopher Rants, R-male
  
• Majority Leader Chuck Gipp, R-male
  
• Minority Leader Pat Murphy, D-male
  

A full list of Iowa Legislators, including the full leadership, can be found on the Iowa Legislature site.

Help them out. Post also on the Iowa forum!