The Des Moines Register ST Tuesday, November 2, 2004 Page 5A ELECTION 2004 'If you work with us through tomorrow, we'll work with you for the next four Edwards speaks briefly to volunteers in D.M. By JONATHAN ROOS REGISTER STAFF WRITER John Edwards whisked into campaign headquarters in downtown Des Moines Monday morning to thank volunteers and urge them to keep working hard for one more day. "Hope will arrive" on Election Day, said the Democratic vice presidential candidate. "If you work with us through tomorrow, we'll work with you for the next four years," said the North Carolina senator. Edwards spent the final day before the election in Iowa and three other battleground states Minnesota, Ohio and Florida where President Bush and Sen.
John Kerry have been locked in close races that could determine who wins the White House. His brief Des Moines visit boiled down to a twominute speech and lots of hand with dozens of volunteers who chanted "One more day, one more day." Edwards made no mention of Bush, who made campaign stops Monday in Des Moines and Sioux City. Instead, Edwards talked about how he and Kerry had campaigned "an enormous amount of time in Iowa. I've been in all 99 counties. John has campaigned everywhere in Iowa.
So much of what we want to do for the country, we learned from people here in Iowa people worrying about their jobs, worried about health -care costs, worried about what was happening in Iraq." Going back to last year, the pair of Democratic candidates became frequent visitors to the state when, in pursuit of their party's nomination, they campaigned for support in the Democratic precinct caucuses. Kerry won the Jan. 19 caucuses; Edwards came in second. The stakes are even higher now. Edwards pumped the Des Moines volunteers with this prediction: "Tomorrow Iowa is going to send John Kerry into the White House." Sheila Mackel, a volunteer who has helped with phone calls, Internet campaign activity and getting out the vote in neighborhoods in the middle of the city, said she was relieved the presidential campaign was nearly over.
"It's been a lot of long, hard days, but I've been extremely pleased" with people's support for Kerry, said Mackel, 46, who also volunteers for other causes. As polls close tonight, Edwards is scheduled to join Kerry at an outdoor rally in Boston. Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, plans visits to Cedar Rapids and Des Moines this morning to thank volunteers and to encourage supporters to vote. Reporter Jonathan Roos can be reached at (515) 284-8443 or IDS EDM MERICA VOTE NIl rds Edwards! Edv AFRICAN Ker A STRONGER AMERICA Ker Edv ASTRONC for AFSCME VEMBER 2 OR KERRY Ear' ARDS It ROBERT REGISTER Full of thanks: Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards energizes a group of campaign volunteers at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters in Des Moines on Monday. 'President Bush understands the war on terror and has a strategy for winning it.
John Kerry does Cheney levels blast at Kerry defense record By PETE YOST ASSOCIATED PRESS Colorado Springs, Colo. Invoking the twin horrors of Pearl Harbor and Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday ripped Sen. John Kerry's record on national security, an area the Bush campaign portrays as the Democratic challenger's most glaring weakness. "If you want my opinion, John Kerry's goose is cooked," Cheney told cheering supporters in this GOP stronghold, where voters at military bases backed George W. Bush 2-to-1 in the 2000 election.
In a day of nonstop campaigning before Election Day, Cheney began in Honolulu, where the temperature was in the high 70s, and traveled to Colorado Springs, which had an overnight snowfall. Making the most of his visit to traditionally Democratic Hawaii, the vice president drew parallels between Pearl Harbor the sneak attack that began U.S. involvement in World War II and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "We are standing just a few miles from Pearl Harbor, the site of a sudden attack.
Three years ago, America faced another sudden attack," Cheney told a Honolulu crowd estimated by aides at 9,000, the vice president's biggest crowd at a campaign event. Cheney said that "the clearest, most important difference in this campaign is simple to state: President Bush understands the war on terror and has a strategy for winning it. John Kerry does not." The vice president said that in the campaign's closing days, Kerry "is trying every which way to cover up his record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work." The Kerry campaign says that the Massachusetts senator has spent the better part of his career working on behalf of the military and that he has been concerned about the consequences of giving Bush a blank check in Iraq.
Kerry has said his combat experience during the Vietnam War shows he is not the weakling that Cheney, who received deferments to avoid military service, portrays him to be. Kerry has said he will fight the terrorists "with all of the intensity with which I went at it" in Vietnam. Outside the Honolulu convention center where Cheney spoke, some 80 people gathered across the street carrying anti -war signs and signs supporting Kerry and running mate John Edwards. Later in the day, Sen. John McCain, campaigned with Cheney in Las Vegas, telling several hundred supporters that the recently released tape of Osama bin Laden shows the face of "evil incarnate" and underscores that Bush is the "one man who knows how to lead this nation." HENEY 04 BUSH ado for Women Stands for Women FOR VANS BUSH Nomen STOR ED PRESS In Colorado: Supporters applaud Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday during his campaign address at the Penrose Equestrian Center in Colorado Springs.
Voters mistakenly identified as felons JIM PRESS Almost over: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry makes his last campaign stop through Milwaukee on Monday. Kerry: World's hopes at stake uninsured people get health care. "This is a solemn and unique moment when the American people get to decide," Kerry said. "Take away the clutter. Take away all the labels Democrat, Republican, independent.
This is your chance to hold George Bush accountable for the last four years." Kerry added star power to his last-minute push for votes, with singers Jon Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen serving as opening acts for rallies in Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland, respectively. The Massachusetts senator displayed confidence and a burst of energy as he campaigned to the finish. Gone was the drawn, seemingly tired Kerry who has been campaigning across the country nonstop for five weeks, sometimes silencing his initially rowdy supporters with lengthy speeches full of facts and figures. But Kerry said Monday was not a day for long speech. "You all know why you are here, By LYNN CAMPBELL REGISTER STAFF WRITER Postal worker Rick Brown, 47, of Madrid, was surprised and upset when he got a letter from his county auditor Friday, telling him that he is a convicted felon and that he can't vote in today's election.
"I was frustrated and just didn't understand," said Brown, who contended that he never served jail time, but in July 1997 received a deferred judgment on a domestic abuse assault charge, according to court records. "I've been a registered voter for years," he said. Brown was one of dozens of Iowans mistakenly purged from voter registration rolls after a list from the state incorrectly identified them as convicted felons. While most people have since been reinstated on voter rolls, it is unclear whether the problem has been fully corrected. "We made every effort to make sure that was an up-to-date list," said Anthony Carroll, a spokesman for the Iowa secretary of state's office.
"The bottom line is it's still not a clean list." The problem appeared to be largest in Linn County, where only 35 people on a list of 145 from the secretary of state's office were actual felons. The full list of people office, which then removes from Prison inmates the list those whose voting rights have been restored. The vast majority of the 8,500 inmates in lowa's prison system have Carroll said it's unclear what committed felonies or aggravated misdemeanors and are prohibited by went He blamed the state wrong. the lowa Constitution from voting, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for court administration for providing the lowa Department of Corrections. the list of felons to the secretary of SOME ELIGIBLE: It is possible that a very small number of inmates who state's office, and said the list have committed less serious crimes may be eligible to vote and may have should be improved when Iowa cast absentee ballots through the mail, Scaletta said.
moves to a statewide voter regisThe prison system doesn't keep track of inmates who cast tration database. NO RECORD: "We're aware that there are absentee ballots, and there is no organized effort within the prisons to help inmates vote. Scaletta said he was also unaware of any effort by some inaccuracies in this report," any said Rebecca outside group to register inmates to vote using absentee ballots. Colton, spokeswoman for the courts. Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, was purged from voter rolls Meanwhile, counties like Polk, wasn't surprised by the problems.
Oct. 23, and some got letters that Cerro Gordo and Pottawattamie He cited an Oct. 19 report by their absentee vote wouldn't count. avoided the problem by not relying Demos, Right to Vote and the "We started getting irate phone on the state's list to purge voters American Civil Liberties Union calls," said Linn County Auditor who are alleged to be felons. showing Iowa doesn't have a law Linda Langenberg, who said "The records that we get are not requiring county auditors to tell names were double checked and accurate," said Polk County Audi- people when their names are have since been reinstated.
"While tor Michael Mauro, who took the purged from voter rolls. this was a mistake on the part of list and cross -checked it with court "If someone does not get notice, somebody at the state level, it could records. "I don't think it's ever been they have no ability to challenge it have been disastrous." accurate. I've been dealing with it before the election," said Stone, In Dubuque County, at least 13 for years." who plans to lobby the Legislature from a list of 78 were mistakenly Election and court officials agree for a law requiring notification. identified as felons.
In Black Hawk that the system of purging felons Voters whose eligibility is chalCounty, 38 from a list of 120 had from the state's voter registration lenged will be allowed to vote totheir voting eligibility restored. rolls is imperfect. day by provisional ballot. And in Boone County, three people Criminal information is funneled shouldn't have been included on a monthly from county clerks to P. Kim Bui and Register Staff Writer list of 27 convicted felons.
auditors and the secretary of state's William Petroski contributed to this report KERRY, from Page 1A and you know the job we have to get done in the next hours," Kerry told supporters gathered at the Orlando airport to see his plane off from his final campaign stop in Florida. "This is the moment of accountability for America," Kerry said. In an interview broadcast Monday on CBS's "The Early Kerry said voters should reject Republican charges that he's not tough enough to take charge, and he recalled his own Vietnam experience. "When I turned my boat in Vietnam i into an ambush and Iwent straight into the ambush and overran it, I didn't see George Bush or Dick Cheney at my side," Kerry said. "So I'm not going to take a second seat to anybody in my willingness to be tough to defend the United States of America." Kerry planned to appear in La Crosse, today before returning to Boston for his Election Day tradition lunch at the Union Oyster House.
He planned a series of satellite interviews to battleground states and an outdoor celebration at Copley Square. John, George find fitting home in swing state By JASON CLAYWORTH REGISTER STAFF WRITER If you thought the presidential campaign was a zoo, here's more evidence all the Iowa visits from John Kerry and President Bush have inspired the names for twin baby monkeys at Des Moines' Blank Park Zoo. "They still live on the backs of their mother and, frankly, I don't know if that's more Democratic or Republican," said Terry Rich, the zoo's chief executive officer. John and George are marmoset monkeys who were born at the zoo about eight weeks ago. Until Monday, they were unnamed and kept out of the public eye until zoo officials determined they were healthy.
"We wanted to find a unique way to commemorate the times the presidential candidates monkeyed around in Iowa," Rich said. "That pretty much sounds like a Blank Park Zoo obtained its first presidential candidate, doesn't it?" pair of marmoset monkeys in 2002. Rich asked. John and George are the second set "If they had a 15-inch body, of twins born from that couple. they'd have a 15-inch tale." The natural habitat of the mar- The monkeys can be seen by the moset monkey is in the rainforests public all year during regular zoo of Brazil.
It grows to about 25 hours, which are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ounces and lives between 15 and 20 daily. More information can be years. Its tail grows to about 15 found on the Internet at inches, which is about the length of www.blankparkzoo.com or by its entire body.
calling (515) 285-4722..
