Cornhole Champions #4 – Counting every ballot (with Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott)

By Amie Rivers

December 4, 2024

State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott of Windsor Heights was cold-calling the local school district. An employee was among a group of new citizens who Secretary of State Paul Pate targeted for additional screening. If the employee didn’t show additional IDs to the auditor, their vote wouldn’t count.

The Democrat from Windsor Heights was out curing ballots after her opponent called for a recount. She had known about the ballots Pate challenged. But she found many people whose ballots were challenged had incomplete or incorrect information on how long they had to fix it.

On this episode of Cornhole Champions, host Zachary Oren Smith chats with Trone Garriott about her recount and the impact the Secretary of State’s targeting had.

Iowa Starting Line’s community editor Amie Rivers joins to talk big developments in carbon capture pipelines, the governor’s call for a new Farm Bill, a case of child labor being in Sioux City and the official certification of the 2024 election results.

Links
1. Wolf Carbon Solutions withdrawals bid for eastern Iowa CO2 pipeline (Iowa Starting Line): https://iowastartingline.com/2024/12/02/wolf-carbon-solutions-adm-capture-co2/

2. GOP governors urge reauthorization of Farm Bill, call 2018 bill ‘outdated’ (Iowa Capital Dispatch): https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/gop-governors-urge-reauthorization-of-farm-bill-call-2018-bill-outdated/

3. Sanitation contractor for Sioux City pork plant fined for using child labor (The Des Moines Register): https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2024/12/03/investigation-finds-contractor-hired-11-children-at-iowa-pork-plant-seaboard-triumph-sioux-city/76661898007/?utm_source=desmoinesregister-newsalert-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_term=hero&utm_content=pdem-des-moines-nletter04

4. Miller-Meeks’ narrow win, rest of Iowa’s 2024 election results officially certified (The Gazette): https://www.thegazette.com/campaigns-elections/miller-meeks-narrow-win-rest-of-iowas-2024-election-results-officially-certified/

Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott is a Democrat reelected to represent Senate District 22.

Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line with music by Avery Mossman. We are a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For more, check out its roundup of local writers: https://iowawriters.substack.com/

Amie Rivers

Amie Rivers is Iowa Starting Line's newsletter editor. She writes the weekly Worker’s Almanac edition of Iowa Starting Line, featuring a roundup of the worker news you need to know. Previously, she was an award-winning journalist at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier; now, she very much enjoys making TikToks and memes and getting pet photos in her inbox.

Have a story tip? Reach Amie at [email protected]. For local reporting in Iowa that connects the dots, from policy to people, sign up for Amie's newsletter.

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