DES MOINES, IOWA -- First it was the Clarke County Sept. 25, 2007 ballot which tried to renew a tax using initial vote language, then it was the Polk County Courthouse April, 29, 2008 illegal ballot which had a $5M slush fund violating the law 331.441, now we have another invalid ballot to deal with in the upcoming Warren County Sales Tax Increase Vote on July, 8 2008.
Iowa law says cities are counted as contiguous across county boundaries so in order to pass in a city, a majority of the city must vote in favor of the tax. Polk County is not voting on the tax so there is no way the City of Des Moines could be affected by the tax. This is not what the ballot says. The ballot put in the Norwalk paper by the Warren County Auditor states it will affect Des Moines City and West Des Moines City and has outlined the tax collection and distribution parameters for City of Des Moines and West Des Moines.
NoLocalOption founder George Davey says, "this is spooking Des Moines voters because it is saying it will affect Des Moines, when in fact by law it cannot."
"One thing is for sure there is no good protection for illegal ballots in Iowa."
"The Iowa attorney General office says they cannot do anything about illegal or invalid ballots because there is already legal framework for this."
"The only problem I have with the legal framework for fighting illegal ballots is that it costs tens of thousands of dollars and is required to occur after the illegal election," says Davey.
The further point to make is if this is affecting Des Moines voters as the ballot states then why is the ballot not in the Des Moines newspapers so the residents can see it. Iowa law says the County auditor is supposed to publish ballots in the local paper. "I would not be surprised if they try to enforce it, it would not be the first time an illegal ballot has been enforced" Davey also stated they will be placing a copy of the invalid ballot in the NoLocalOption.com website so residents of Des Moines will have the option to see the ballot that claims to affect them.
To See the Ballot
http://www.NoLocalOption.com/images/WarrenBallot.pdf
###
