Chronological excerpts published in the Quad-City Times on Nov. 5, 2024, co-written with reporter Tom Loewy, as part of a 2024 Election live blog

Early birds vote in Rock Island County

5:15 a.m., Rock Island: At 5:15 a.m., the sun hadn’t risen yet at the Rock Island County Building. It was a breezy 64 degrees, with just under an hour until polls opened at 6 a.m. for the 2024 election. 

The only sounds: a metronomic beep from the crosswalk at the corner of 15th Street and Third Avenue, the rattle of the Stars and Stripes atop a flag pole at City Hall and the occasional hum of a large truck. 

About 5:25 a.m., the first voter arrived. Terri Hart hadn’t had her usual coffee with cream and Splenda yet, but she felt getting to the poll site early was important.

“I think it’s not only a privilege, it is our duty here in America,” she said. 

Hart said she anticipated long lines after seeing them at poll sites earlier this week. She was surprised to be the first one there.

“Where are all the people this morning?” she asked. “I feel like a dork.”

With 10 minutes until polls opened, Karen Barber, 63, got off the city bus from Milan and joined Hart in line. 

“I want to get my vote in,” she said. “We need a change.”

Barber woke up at 4:30 this morning to board the bus and got picked up around 5:20 a.m.

“They don’t have the voting vans this year,” she said. “They had vans that came around and we could vote in them.”

Empathy, immigration, Trump all factors for Rock Island voters

6:40 a.m. Rock Island: The sun had risen and a steady stream of voters trickled in and out of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Rock Island’s West End. 

Ashley Jones walked out of the polling place to get another form of ID to register and cast her ballot. Minutes later, she emerged from the building and said her Social Security card wouldn’t work. When she exited a third time, Jones said mail with her address on it, along with an ID, did the trick.

“Piece of cake,” she said.

Jones, 40, got off her third shift job as a nurse’s aide at Generations in Rock Island at 6 a.m. She picked up her usual at McDonald’s — a medium mocha frappe with a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit — before parking at the MLK Center. 

Jones said she thought it was important to get out and vote “for the people and the future.” Initially, she wasn’t planning to cast a ballot.

“This election is so confusing, and normally it’s a little easier,” she said.

Jones said she voted for a candidate with “a little bit of empathy,” hoping to “some type of unity” in the country. 

Kordaro Sanders, a 35-year-old truck driver, said he hadn’t voted since 2012. But this year, issues like cost of living and immigration brought him back. 

“(I want) to let my voice be heard,” he said.

Willie and Ricky Gathright, 71 and 65, left the MLK Center shortly after Sanders. The brothers always vote together, Willie said. The only election he’s missed was in 2012.

In this election, the Rock Island High School alumnus said “we’ve got to keep Trump out.”

“If I don’t vote, I can’t complain,” Willie said. 

Economy a common topic for Andalusia voters

7:30 a.m. Andalusia: At the Andalusia Community Center, the parking lot was full around 7:30 a.m.

Many voters parked their cars on the grassy berms lining Second Street West and Third Avenue West. A mist hung in the air.

As Mike and Lynn Bickle exited the polling site, they stopped for a selfie with their “I Voted” stickers. 

The Taylor Ridge couple of 20 years said that they voted, not for themselves, but for their three children and two grandchildren.

This morning, the Bickles said their 7- and 9-year-old grandkids were glued to the TV for election news. The couple were impressed by how informed the youth are.

“We are very candid about what’s going on,” Mike said. “You guys aren’t gonna have a world to live in if we don’t make some changes.”

Specifically, the Bickles said they’re concerned with the economy.

“I went yesterday to the grocery store and I got a gallon of milk that cost me almost $6,” Lynn said. “These young couples that are trying to raise families, how can they survive?”

Emily Hartwick, a 45-year-old nurse who has lived in the Andalusia area all her life, echoes the Bickles. She said “the state of the economy and the cost of living” were her main concerns as she cast her ballot Tuesday.

She and her husband raised eight children.

“They are all grown and trying to build their lives,” she said. “They can’t afford anything and they are young and starting out.” 

Tom Fourdyce, 46, said he votes in every election. He noted this election is “really important.”

“How do I put it?” he said. “This presidential election is a referendum on democracy.”

Voting important for Quad-Cities father and daughter

8:40 a.m. Davenport: Golea McAdams strolled out of the Scott County Administrative Center on West Fourth Street in Davenport with a smile on her face. 

The 37-year-old cast her ballot early Tuesday for two reasons.

“Well, I wanted to get here because I saw those lines on the news last night and I figured I’d get here to try and avoid that,” she said. “I think it’s important to vote. There isn’t one big issue for me, but I want to make sure to show up.”

McAdams said the other reason she wanted to vote in the morning had to do with family.

“I’m about to head over to the Illinois side and pick up my 94-year-old father and take him to where he votes,” she said. “I told him I’d bring a chair in case the line was long. But he wanted to make sure he could vote.”

Voter challenged over citizenship at Davenport polling location

9 a.m., Davenport: At the Rogalski Center on the St. Ambrose University campus, one woman, who asked not to be named, said that before she cast her ballot, her citizenship was challenged.

The woman said her name was on the list of 2,176 potential noncitizen voters that Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office compiled ahead of the election using Iowa Department of Transportation data. Pate issued a directive to county auditors to challenge anyone listed and have them cast a provisional ballot, claiming their citizenship status was not clear to his office.

Scott County Auditor Kerri Tompkins said Monday 94 names on the list were residents of Scott County.

Iowa chapter of the ACLU and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit late last week challenging the list, arguing the order violated plaintiffs’ fundamental right to vote. The lawsuit was rejected by a federal judge on Sunday, with the ruling noting that at least some people on the list were not citizens. Pate called the ruling a “win for Iowa’s election integrity.”

The woman said she is a citizen and has voted before. After providing proof of citizenship, she voted on Tuesday, too. A poll watcher at the site declined to comment. 

Tompkins said auditor’s offices at first were directed to have voters on the list cast provisional ballots and provide proof of citizenship before Nov. 12 for their ballot to be counted by a special absentee voting board. After the judge’s ruling and new direction came down from the state over the weekend, Tompkins said if a voter on the list brings documentation to the polling site Tuesday, they will be able to cast a regular ballot immediately. 

Another Scott County voter challenged over citizenship

9:40 a.m. Davenport: Natalie Thursby moved from Scotland to the United States 35 years ago and became a citizen in 2021.

She was turned away from the polling place at ImpactLife because her name was on a list of potential noncitizens compiled by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office. 

“My name came up and I was told I needed more documentation to vote,” she said. “First I was told that if I brought the right documents, I could vote and then there would be a delay of a week.

“Then another lady told me that if I had the document I could vote and my vote would count today.”

Precinct chairperson Beth Rogers cleared up the confusion.

“The person who had her citizenship questioned only has to bring in her passport or appropriate documentation, and she can vote today and her vote will be counted,” she said.

Rogers said Thursby’s name appeared on a list generated by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate. That list was matched up to voter rolls by the Scott County Auditor’s Office and names were flagged.

Rogers said that as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, 266 people cast ballots at the ImpactLife polling place. Thursby was the only person who had her citizenship questioned in the first three hours the polling location was open. 

Eldridge voters talk about election’s impact on families

11 a.m., Eldridge: In the late morning at the Scott County Library in Eldridge, the rain had just stopped falling.

Several families filed in. Some browsed the children’s books and others voted. The election’s impact on families was on the voters’ minds.

Beth Bredow, 37, said that “with everybody hating everybody,” she’s ready for the election process to be done, no matter which candidate wins. 

“Either way, I’m happy it’s gonna be over,” she said.

Bredow said she and her husband are on the same political page, but she’s not always in line with the rest of her family.

They’ve learned to agree to disagree. 

“There’s no point in hating each other over this,” she said.

Lexie Yanke, 42, said she and her husband were brough up with differing political views. Ahead of this election, they discussed in passing conversations what would be best for them, their kids and the culture their kids will be raised in. 

“We went back and forth a little bit,” she said. “And we didn’t say it out loud, but I think we ended up voting for the same person.”

Yanke said the discussions were healthy for her and her husband.

“I think that we both challenge each other equally,” she said.