Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 11
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Veterans Day, Friday, November 11.
Temperatures fell off the side of a cliff last night and kept falling until they hit freezing. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 35 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Friday. On Friday night it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of around 25 degrees. It will be windy, so definitely wear that coat you were already thinking of wearing. Winds of 10 to 15 mph could gust more than 20 mph.
For the second time this election week, state elections officials spent Thursday dealing with an error in Linn County as the statewide counting of Iowans’ votes from Tuesday’s election continues with another recount ordered.
In addition to a recalculation of Linn County’s vote totals due to an error in the reporting of its early vote counts, partial recounts also were conducted Thursday in Warren and Des Moines counties. The partial recounts were ordered by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate after irregularities were discovered Tuesday night. In addition, on Thursday afternoon, Pate ordered an administrative recount of absentee ballots in Scott County. All election results in Iowa are considered unofficial until they are reviewed and certified by the state’s canvassing board.
Unofficial results in Linn County came Thursday only after a recalculation of the county’s vote totals due to a second error made by the county auditor’s office.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Linn County reported 600 more absentee ballots than the office had actually received at the time the polls closed. The discrepancy was discovered by the Secretary of State’s office, which then alerted the Linn County Auditor’s Office.
According to the Linn County Auditor’s Office, a computer froze while the county’s absentee ballot counts were being uploaded. The process was completed on a backup computer, but officials believe 600 ballots were inadvertently reported twice — once during the original attempt and again during the backup attempt.
The Linn County Auditor’s Office resolved the tabulation of the county’s votes, and the posted results were corrected, the Secretary of State’s office said. The Secretary of State’s office took the opportunity to chide the county again for not following procedures it had laid out.
A 16-year-old faces charges related to a shooting near Mount Mercy University and Regis Middle School last week that injured a Mount Mercy student and caused several schools to lock down.
Natorian Nicholas Smith, of Cedar Rapids, faces several charges in connection to the shooting. The charges against Smith were filed Thursday, though he was already being held at the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center because of a probation violation related to the shooting, according to a Cedar Rapids police news release.
Smith was reportedly involved in an exchange of gunfire just before 4 p.m. Nov. 3 near the intersection of K Avenue and Elmhurst Drive NE, police said.
A Mount Mercy cross-country runner was on his way to practice and got caught in the crossfire. He was shot in his right forearm, a non-life threatening injury, according to the criminal complaint.
Police collected video surveillance that showed an exchange of gunfire between three people in a silver Chevy Cruze and two people on foot. Investigators found more than 20 shell casings in the area and found a car, a house and a garage had each been struck by bullets, the news release said.
A police K-9 led officers to 1300 Oakland Rd., a few blocks from the shooting, where they made contact with Smith. A search warrant revealed a gun in the apartment where Smith was found.
Some of the shell casings matched the gun. Surveillance footage showed Smith fired shots, and an ankle monitor he was wearing — because he was on juvenile probation — showed him in the area of the shooting at the time it happened, according to the criminal complaint.
