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SC Council Considering Narrowing Riverside Blvd, Felon Voting Rights in Iowa Still an Issue

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The Sioux City Council will be asked today to approve a pre-construction agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation for the reconfiguration of Iowa 12/Riverside Boulevard to a three-lane roadway, according to the Sioux City Journal.

The project would reconfigure Iowa 12/Riverside Boulevard from four lanes to three on Iowa 12 from War Eagle Drive to Military Road.  

Iowa is the only state that still bans all people with felony convictions from voting unless they appeal to the governor.

Governor Kim Reynolds proposed amending the constitution to change that, which lawmakers will consider again when they return to the capitol next week.

But the NAACP, ACLU, and Campaign Legal Center want the state to do more in the meantime. Ashley Caldwell of Restore Your Vote Iowa says the state should clear up confusion she found to be a problem for about a third of the people she’s worked with. 

 “That’s a shocking number of individuals who literally could have been voting for years and some of them for decades, that haven’t been voting because they thought their rights were taken away.”

Caldwell says there should be a website for Iowans to check their voting eligibility. The groups also want the state to speed up voting rights restorations ahead of the caucuses and work quickly to rid the felon voter list of mistakes.

The Iowa Capitol Building and Golden Dome

The Iowa Legislature begins its work next Monday, January 13th

Leaders from both political parties say they believe this 2020 election-year session will feature a multipronged discussion of state tax policies encompassing income, sales, property and business taxes — but they would not be surprised if it takes most of the scheduled 100 days for a consensus to develop if one does at all.

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