Is everyone aware of the Iowa situation?

[CoffeeCat]

I voted in Iowa tonight and we had the option of voting
to retain (or not retain) our three Iowa Supreme Court
judges.

There has been a huge campaign by the right-wing hatemongers
to vote NO for these Iowa Supreme Court judges, because they
went with the Iowa Constitution and they made gay marriage
legal in Iowa.

Iowa now has gay marriage because these state Supreme
Court judged followed the Equal Protection Claus, which
disallows granting rights to some, but not all.

The right wing has campaigned vociferously to oust these
judged, claiming that they are "activist judges." A
massive propaganda campaign.

Interesting, two of these three judges were appointed by Terry
Brandstad, a former Republican governor, who is a conservative.

This is an important one to watch, folks!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I'm sorry, but I had no idea until I read your post. That's really scary!

[Peacetrain]

2. YEP.. and our polls close in 10 minutes.. hopefully all Iowans turned the Ballot over

[CoffeeCat]

4. I hope so too!

This is so important.

I'm so proud of my state for leading the way on this civil-rights issue.

I'll be ashamed of my state if gay marriage is made illegal.

[Countdown_3_2_1]

3. I'm in Iowa.

You can't fight bigotry.
The judges are going down. The polls close at 9, so we likely won't know till late.
There was a valiant effort to save the judges, but it was too little, too late.

Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised in the morning.

[CoffeeCat]

6. It will be interesting...

...because I think most people would just naturally vote
to retain judges.

So, we may have that going for us. It's possible that many
Iowans are not aware that this is a huge issue, so they'll
just vote to keep them in.

However, the right wing had a very orchestrated effort against
these judges, so many right wingers will vote against them.
The question is, will that be enough to oust them? Was their
hate campaign effective enough?

If most people turned their ballot over (and I think most will!),
we just have to hope that people in an automatic fashion--voted
to retain those judges.

There was no concerted campaign on the left to encourage people
to vote "Yes" though.

So really--like you said--we may have to wait on this one. It's
a big unknown right now. Unfortunately.

[barbtries]

9. you HAVE to fight bigotry

we're an evolving species.

[terrya]

5. This is so important

If any of these Justices are defeated tonight, it sends a very chilling message to Justices and judges everywhere in this country.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Iowans will ultimately vote for fairness, for equality and against bullying justices who support equality and civil rights.

[HuskiesHowls]

7. I voted yes on the back....all but the convention...

Gotta try to keep those judges, keep our rights!!!

[barbtries]

8. any indications of the outcome?

and if they are ousted, what then? who takes their places?

imagine being so full of hate that you would work to rid a court of judges for following the law. sad.

[AngryAmish]

10. When you say "the iowa situation" I think of pasty abs

[CoffeeCat]

11. Well, that too...

...but we didn't get to vote on getting rid of pasty abs.

We do have a tanning booth tax to consider though!

[CoffeeCat]

12. A sad update...not looking good for gay marriage...

...in Iowa.

Looks like about 50 percent of the votes are in, and the three
judges are at about 52 percent NO (voting to oust them) and 48
to retain these judges.

We'll have to keep watching the returns, but it's not looking very
well.

If these judges go down, our new (very conservative, anti-gay marriage)
Republican governor, Terry Brandstad--will appoint new judges who will
not be friendly to gay marriage.

Brandstad is beating our Democratic Governor, Chet Culver--by double
digits.

Very bummed tonight. I'm ashamed of my state right now.