An oft-overlooked issue with the current Woodbury County Board of Supervisors is that after softly calling for Jeremy Taylor to resign, none of them pursued any meaningful action to remove him from the highest governing body in the county. County Auditor and Recorder, Pat Gill submitted a resolution, on their behalf, asking asking for an Iowa Attorney General investigation and the Board declined to pursue it.
Woodbury County has an opportunity to reform the current makeup of the Board of Supervisors by electing John Herrig, Lincoln Ryan and Brian (Willard) McNaughton. The current board has proven time and again they do not have the best interests of Woodbury County citizens in mind.
On November 22, 2023, the Woodbury County Democrats Executive Committee issued the following statement in response to the 52-count election tampering conviction of Kim Taylor that implicated her husband Supervisor Jeremy Taylor.
The Woodbury Democrats call on un-indicted co-conspirator Jeremy Taylor to step down from his County Board of Supervisors seat in the aftermath of the guilty verdict of his wife to 52 counts of voter fraud charges. According to a trial brief from the Federal prosecutors, Jeremy Taylor is a co-conspirator to this voter fraud and yesterday the Assistant U.S. Attorney stated that he is still being investigated.
Election integrity is critical to the democratic process. It knows no party. Woodbury County Auditor Patrick F. Gill shows us every day that when responsible, capable, and good-intentioned people follow the rules of democracy, democracy wins. The system worked in this case and it continues to work when professionals are allowed to do their jobs without undue political interference.
We agree with U.S. Attorney Timothy Daux’s statement released after the verdict, “The right to vote is one of our most important constitutional rights. Ms. Taylor deprived citizens of their right to vote in order to benefit her husband’s campaign. Today, another group of citizens, fulfilling their civic duty as jurors, held her accountable for her actions. The guilty verdict is an example of how the justice system works to protect the voting rights of citizens and ensure fair and honest elections.”
Incoming populations and other minorities face too many hurdles to the election process as it is. The Taylors' actions were a cynical bid to manipulate a vulnerable population in ways that benefitted themselves. We need to make new citizens feel welcome, not cause them to undergo court testimony as part of the voting process.
With daily cost-overruns on the county jail project and other critical issues before the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, their focus needs to be on the county taxpayers and their families, not on personal family court appeals. For the good of his family and for the good of the County, we call on Mr. Taylor to resign. We urge the Supervisors to move on from Jermey Taylor’s serial dramas (including previously lying about where he lived) so they can focus on issues like the jail, a poorly-designed and even more poorly executed boondoggle built by non-union, out-of-town contractors without a stake in our community.