Sioux City will keep four mobile traffic cameras operating in the city, as a big category of them will be taken away after a state agency ruling Tuesday.
The Iowa Department of Transportation is allowing only 11 of 139 fixed traffic cameras that automatically issue speeding tickets to continue operating. Tuesday was the deadline for IDOT to approve or deny permits for traffic cameras under a new state law.
Five cities, including Sioux City, can use mobile speed cameras. Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott told Siouxland Public Media that four mobile cameras can be used, of the nine that the city applied to keep using.
Scott said that meant Sioux City fared better than many Iowa towns. Eighteen communities were fully denied permits for automated speed enforcement.
Prairie City had to turn off its speed cameras. Mayor Chad Alleger said he’s surprised by IDOT’s denial.
“We have the data to show that we have reduced speed out on [Highway] 163 and in front of the school. So I don’t understand the explanation of ‘not necessary,’ because it proves that it is working,” Alleger said.
The DOT said its decisions were based on the law that says cities have to prove their cameras are necessary, appropriate, and the least restrictive way of addressing traffic safety issues.
*Additionally, the sole national debate between the two vice presidential nominees will be held Tuesday evening, and the Woodbury County Democratic Party has set a watch party.
The debate begins at 8 p.m., and will be broadcast here on Siouxland Public Media. The participants are Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz.
The Woodbury County Democrats will gather at their campaign headquarters, 1325 Lewis Boulevard in Sioux City, with that event to begin at 7 p.m. There will be no watch party by the Woodbury County Republican Party this evening.
*Also, beginning Tuesday, county election offices in Nebraska are mailing early voting ballots to voters who completed early voting applications and fulfilled the new voter ID requirement.
County election offices have reported to the Nebraska Secretary of State that the majority of voters are following the voter ID requirement.
“Nebraskans overwhelmingly understood the new voter ID law in the primary election,” Secretary of State Bob Evnen said in a release.
Registered Nebraska voters can still request an early voting ballot by sending their early voting application to their county election office. October 25 is the last day a voter can request an early voting ballot be sent to them, and those ballots must make it back to county offices by the end of Election Day, which is November 5.
October 7 is the first date that people can do early in-person voting in county offices in Nebraska.
Early voting began in South Dakota on September 20, and will start in Iowa on October 16.
Also concerning general election voting, Iowa is one of many Republican-led states that enacted stricter voting laws after former President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election by baselessly attacking mail voting.
This is the first presidential election since Iowa lawmakers cut the time allowed for voting and put new restrictions on voting by mail. Now, both Democrats and Republicans in Iowa are encouraging absentee voting this fall even though it’s become more difficult.
Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufman and Governor Kim Reynolds are encouraging early voting, with the governor saying it is a good strategy to “bank” early votes.
Registered Democrats in Iowa have cast more absentee votes than Republicans for the past two decades.
