SIOUX CITY — As the trial for the wife of a Woodbury County Supervisor accused of voter fraud starts next week on Monday, new court documents name him, Jeremy Taylor, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Kim Taylor was arrested in January and pleaded not guilty to 52 counts of voter fraud. Prosecutors say she filled out and cast absentee ballots in her husband’s unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for Congress and his winning county supervisor’s race in 2020.
The indictment alleges the crimes involved obtaining the votes of members of Sioux City’s Vietnamese community, who had limited ability to read and understand English.
Court documents show federal prosecutors are expected to call around 20 witnesses, including Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan and former supervisor and current state lawmaker Rocky De Witt. They are expected to testify that Jeremy Taylor said he had a “lock” on a substantial number of votes from the Vietnamese community, so if the sheriff donated to Taylor’s campaign, he would get between 500 to 700 votes from the Vietnamese community.
Kim Taylor is native of Vietnam. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count.
Jeremy Taylor gave a statement on Tuesday saying the truth is going to come out next week in the trial.
In January 2020 the Woodbury County Auditor ruled Taylor could no longer hold his supervisor position because he was not living at the address listed on his voter registration, thereby living outside the county board district, and violating a state law. Taylor then resigned that post, before changing the address of his residence on his voter registration to a second Sioux City home owned, and then won a new position on the board in a different district later in November 2020.
Additionally, the compositions of the Sioux City School Board and Sioux City Council have been set for the next two years, following results of the Tuesday municipal elections across Iowa.
Sioux City voters on Tuesday returned Bob Scott as mayor and Julie Schoenherr as a council member. Scott was unopposed on the ballot, while Schoenherr was narrowly victorious over Tom Murphy, a former longtime city employee who wanted to join the council.
There was a big contest for the Sioux City School Board, as five positions were decided by voters, and only one of the two incumbents won seats. Eleven candidates sought the school board positions.
The one contest that involved a two-year seat pitted incumbent Dan Greenwell with Semehar Ghebrekida, and Greenwell nabbed the win.
Additionally, nine people were competing for four positions of four-year length, and the victors were Treyla Lee, Earl Miller, Lance Ehmcke, and John Meyers.
Lee took the most votes, with 3,530.
Voter turnout in Sioux City was roughly 25 percent. Woodbury County Deputy of Elections Steve Hofmeyer said he thought many school bond issue measures spurred voting.
There were many school bond issue measures of more than $10 million devoted to school facilities plans throughout Northwest Iowa, including at Lawton-Bronson and Hinton near Sioux City.
Both the L-B and Hinton school measures were defeated, as was a Schaller-Crestland school project.
Bond issues were approved in West Lyon, Sheldon ($19 million), Rock Valley, and Harris-Lake Park.
