The answers to the questions tell a familiar story.
An advocate for the homeless stands in a common area of a north side apartment building where the smell of urine and hopelessness is overwhelming and goes through a questionnaire with Brad and Megan Fielding.
Question: In the last three years how many times have you been homeless?
Lots, says Megan. Maybe four times? At least that, says Brad.
Question: Have you called any agencies?
All of them, Megan replies. We ve called so many since this happened.
The Fieldings are sheltering in the apartment building after having hopped from friends couches to a place on the southeast side where they were about to begin paying rent before it burned down and left them with a few days vouchers at a local hotel and nothing beyond.
By Randy Evans
2/22/2021
Iowaâs 2020 election was one for the record books with 1.7 million people marking ballots.
It was an impressive turnout in Iowa with 76 percent of Iowaâs eligible voters taking part.
There were no allegations of election fraud or polling place shenanigans in Iowa. No one suggested people from cemeteries were casting ballots in our state.
We didnât hear claims Iowa voting machines were rigged by nefarious forces. No one suggested counterfeit ballots were sneaked into counties across Iowa.
So, this question is worth asking:
Why is the Iowa Legislature fast-tracking dramatic changes in the stateâs election laws that will make it more difficult for people to vote?
Erin Murphy
Lee Des Moines Bureau
DES MOINES By all accounts, Iowaâs 2020 general election was wildly successful, and that success was driven largely by early voting.
A bill that is rapidly making its way through the Iowa Legislature would constrain, if not outright ban, many of the early voting programs that made the 2020 election in Iowa a record-breaker.
More than 1.7 million Iowans cast a ballot in the 2020 general election, the most in state history. Statewide turnout was 76%, one of the highest rates in the nation. Every county had at least 65% turnout, and 14 surpassed 80%.
Early and absentee voting drove that high turnout: Iowans cast more than 1 million absentee ballots, another state record and nearly 60% of total ballots.
DES MOINES An Iowa lawmaker used the debunked claim of widespread election fraud to explain his support Wednesday for a sweeping election bill that would reduce the early voting period by more than a third and limit the ways voters receive and submit early ballots.
Public hearings were held on the new bill, Senate Study Bill 1199, which was introduced just 24 hours earlier by statehouse Republicans.
After hearing public input, most of which was in opposition, Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said he supports the proposal because “it addresses the controversy that the country is going through right now.”
Schultz was referring to doubt in the 2020 presidential election results falsely sowed by Republican former President Donald Trump, who lost.