By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

At least 200,000 Iowans have already cast votes in this year’s General Election.

The latest information on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website indicates county auditors have issued 273,000 absentee ballots and 199,358 were returned by mid-morning on Monday. That’s roughly a return rate of roughly 73%.

Here’s the party breakdown so far: about 55% of the early votes are from Democrats, 31% are from Republicans and most of the rest are from independents who list “no party” on their voter registration.

Fifty-two percent of the “early votes” so far were either cast in person at a county auditor’s office or satellite voting site — or voters used a designated drop box for their absentee ballot.

That means a little less than half of the early votes already cast in Iowa’s 2022 General Election were delivered to county auditors’ offices through the U.S. Mail. Iowa law now requires absentee ballots to be inside your county auditor’s office by 8 p.m. next Tuesday. Election officials say the window for mailing ballots is closing. Jennifer Garms is president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.
“Once again, I would just recommend that if you have the opportunity to bring it into the office, to do that route,” says Jennifer Garms, president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.

Postmarks and postal bar codes showing you mailed a ballot before Election Day no longer apply. Voters can check online at www.voterready.iowa.gov to see if their ballot has been received.

In-person early voting at county auditors’ offices and satellite voting locations continues through November 7th.

DES MOINES — The Affordable Care Act’s annual Open Enrollment period is days away and new rules have made the program stronger than ever.  Last year, a record number of people enrolled in healthcare coverage through the Marketplace.  In IA, more than 9 in 10 people that got their insurance on the Marketplace were eligible for a monthly subsidy that helps them pay for the plan they selected.  New rules for this year’s Open Enrollment have strengthened the program even more so that thousands of families in Iowa will likely qualify to get coverage as well.  Open Enrollment begins on November 1, 2022 and will run until January 15, 2023.

Recently, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a record amount of grant funding to organizations that provide free help to consumers requiring health coverage enrollment assistance. For Iowa, First Choice Services was awarded $295,350 to continue and expand their IA Navigator program. The program provides free assistance to people finding and selecting health care options through the Marketplace, Medicaid and CHIP. They can assist with enrollment applications and help consumers apply for financial assistance through HealthCare.gov. IA Navigator can assist people over the phone and have staff that speak both English and Spanish in addition to offering translation services.

“Most people will be able to qualify for substantially lower costs this year if they get their insurance on the Marketplace,” said Jeremy Smith, program director for IA Navigator. “We are really urging people to look at the new plans and prices that are being released this year. In a lot of cases, the plans are more affordable than we have ever seen. Even if you have looked into insurance on the Marketplace in past years and were not very happy, you should definitely look into it again this year.” Smith says getting help signing up is important, as many people are overwhelmed by the options or may not realize how to shop for affordable health coverage.

Consumers who come back to the Health Insurance Marketplace this year can expect to see some very important updates and expansions.  New rules will expand eligibility to those that had previously been blocked from getting the coverage because they had an unaffordable offer of insurance through an employer. This fix to the “Family Glitch” will expand eligibility to thousands of families. Additionally, the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act secured enhanced subsidies and locked in lower prices for Marketplace plans for three more years.  It also kept in place that higher income earners can continue to enroll in subsidized coverage as well.

It is important to pay attention to Open Enrollment deadlines. For January 1^st coverage, sign up must be completed by December 15^th. Open Enrollment will completely end on January 15^th. People who already have a plan and need to re-enroll are encouraged to double-check the network and prescription drug coverage for any changes, and to update their information in case they qualify for any additional cost-savings. For free assistance the IA Navigator program is available by calling 515-978-9570 or visiting www.ACANavigator.com.

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Snow is not in the forecast — but several big orange DOT trucks have been out on the highway with their sprayers going.

DOT winter operations director, Craig Bargfrede says they are spraying plain water, not salt brine. “The purpose of that is to make sure that everything is calibrated, and that we’re putting out exactly the right amount of material and the right amount of liquid. Depending upon which material we’re using,” he says.

He says all of the trucks are outfitted with a GPS system that is connected to the spreader controllers. “So part of the reason why we do the calibration is to make sure our accuracy in distributing the material. And then during the winter as we go through the winter season, as the trucks around operating and doing their winter operations, that information of is fed back through the GPS modem,” Bargfrede says. “And we capture all that data so that we know exactly how much material by each truck has done has been split out on the highway.”

Bargfrede says most of the treatment they do now is a salt brine. They may sometimes put down some wet salt, but only for certain conditions. Bargfrede says they have developed a guide for the plow drivers for setting the material that is deployed.
“You know, depending on the weather conditions, and what type of precipitation we got, dependent upon the temperature, that’s a guide that gives them a range for what kind of treatment strategies that they’re going to use,” Bargfrede says.

He says they started earlier this month to get everything ready for when there’s actual winter weather. “October 15 is the magical date. According to our policy and procedures, we need to have a certain percentage of our equipment and vehicles ready to go. And typically those early season type situations are some type of frost run or something like that depends upon conditions and the weather,” Bargfrede says.

Bargfrede says there is some early indication they may be busy. “Now in talking to our weather service provider, they’re kind of looking at the forecast for the winter season as being a below normal temperatures, meaning colder, and above normal precipitation, meaning we’re going to be wetter,” he says. “Now whether that comes in the form of rain or snow, we can’t really say for sure.”

Bargfrede says they will have the equipment ready — whatever Mother Nature throws their way.