{"id":3159,"date":"2013-04-02T13:14:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T18:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=3159"},"modified":"2013-04-05T16:41:41","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T21:41:41","slug":"what-is-it-with-all-these-special-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2013\/04\/what-is-it-with-all-these-special-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"What is it with all these special elections?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the first Tuesday after the first Monday (unless noted), Iowa looooves special elections this year. The Secretary of State <a href=\"http:\/\/sos.iowa.gov\/elections\/electioninfo\/specelectioncal.html\">lists seven allowable scheduled dates<\/a>, and that doesn&#8217;t include votes that must be held within a certain number of days of a vacancy. Elections that I know of are listed below, aside from regular school and city elections in September and November.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>January: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radioiowa.com\/2013\/01\/23\/democrat-wins-special-election-for-iowa-house-seat\/\">Jan. 22 special election for vacant Iowa House seat<\/a> (resignation); <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mahaskacounty.org\/?p=2328\">Jan. 29 special election for Mahaska County Supervisor<\/a><\/li>\n<li>February: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omaha.com\/article\/20130207\/NEWS\/702079899\/1707\">Multiple districts had merger votes<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/news\/local\/February-Election-Set-for-Iowa-City-School-District-Voters-177705451.html\">Iowa City school district voted on &#8220;revenue purpose statement&#8221;<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.desmoinesregister.com\/dmr\/index.php\/2013\/02\/12\/mickelson-wins-handily-in-west-des-moines-city-council-election\/article\">West Des Moines City Council election Feb. 12<\/a> to fill seat vacated from <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.desmoinesregister.com\/dmr\/index.php\/2012\/12\/11\/republican-schneider-defeats-democrat-adams-in-iowa-senate-special-election\/article\">Dec. 11 Iowa Senate special election<\/a> (because of a death)<\/li>\n<li>March:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kwwl.com\/story\/21527821\/2013\/03\/05\/the-results-are-in-and-linn-county-is-one-step-closer-to-a-casino\">Linn County approved asking for a casino<\/a><\/li>\n<li>April:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/whotv.com\/2013\/03\/31\/bond-referendum-saydel-and-van-meter-ask-for-voter-support\/\">Saydel, Van Meter, Woodward-Granger have school bond issue elections today<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/fairfield-ia.villagesoup.com\/p\/school-bond-vote-passes-easily\/983622\">Fairfield<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/news\/local\/School-Supporters-Notch-a-Close-Win-in-Anamosa-Bond-Vote-201332411.html\">Anamosa<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clintonherald.com\/local\/x1916524403\/School-upgrades-backed\">Northeast (Goose Lake)<\/a>\u00a0had elections as well.<\/li>\n<li>May: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/51258081\/ns\/local_news-des_moines_ia\/t\/casino-vote-warren-county-special-election-set\/#.UVsdH3BTJgY\">Warren County&#8217;s turn to vote on a casino<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thegazette.com\/2013\/02\/15\/may-7-election-officially-set-on-johnson-county-criminal-justice-center\/\">Johnson County is trying again on justice center<\/a>, voted down in November<\/li>\n<li>June 25: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/news\/local\/Ailing-District-Eyes-Consolidation-200580861.html\">Exira and Elk Horn-Kimballton<\/a> have a somewhat expedited merger vote because Exira&#8217;s accreditation is endangered. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/article\/20130401\/NEWS\/304010078\/1029\/BUSINESS\/?odyssey=nav%7Chead\">Johnston is trying again on a bond issue<\/a> for a new high school, voted down in September.*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*The Johnston school district map linked in the article includes Grimes east of IA 141 (which, as late as the mid-&#8217;90s, wasn&#8217;t part of Grimes) and Urbandale north of Meredith Drive and east of 114th Street. Interesting. That means the Grimes Wal-Mart just east of 141 and businesses at the Merle Hay Road and 86th Street exits are part of Johnston&#8217;s tax base.<\/p>\n<p>Legislators should consider further narrowing the elections calendar \u2014 quarterly, perhaps. That wouldn&#8217;t apply to vacancies, but two different casino votes and three school merger\/bond issue days in six months seems excessive.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATE 4\/5: Added more school votes from April 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the first Tuesday after the first Monday (unless noted), Iowa looooves special elections this year. The Secretary of State lists seven allowable scheduled dates, and that doesn&#8217;t include votes that must be held within a certain number of days &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2013\/04\/what-is-it-with-all-these-special-elections\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iowa-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3159"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3181,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions\/3181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}