© 2024 WVIK
Listen at 90.3 FM and 98.3 FM in the Quad Cities, 95.9 FM in Dubuque, or on the WVIK app!
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Campaigns & Elections

Voting Rights Rally

WVIK, Quad Cities NPR | By Herb Trix
Published March 18, 2022 at 10:21 AM CDT

One year ago, Iowa passed a law restricting voting in several ways. This weekend, some local residents will gather to mark the anniversary - not to celebrate but to lament what they consider a voter suppression law.

Event organizer Ken Croken says the law reduced time for early voting, limited locations for ballot drop boxes, and shortened hours on election day.

"You know voting is one of our most sacred rights as Americans and government should be doing everything possible to make access to the ballot easier not more restrictive."

He believes the Iowa law will make it especially difficult for the elderly and people with mobility problems. Plus fewer hours for voting will make it harder for everyone to go to the polls.

Backers of the Iowa voting law say it ensures what they call "voter integrity," and it was passed soon after record voter turnout in the 2020 election.

The anniversary event, focusing on the importance of voting and the need for passage of federal voting rights, will be held on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm, at the King Interpretive Center in Davenport (501 Brady Street).
Campaigns & Elections
Herb Trix
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.
See stories by Herb Trix