Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s highest court is upholding a state directive that was used to invalidate tens of thousands of absentee ballot requests mailed to voters pre-filled with their personal information. The Iowa Supreme Court issued its ruling in favor of President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican groups as Trump held a rally in Des Moines. The court rejected a Democratic challenge that argued the directive issued by Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate was unconstitutional. Pate instructed county elections commissioners in July that all absentee ballot request forms they mailed to voters must be blank in order to ensure uniformity statewide. Auditors in three counties defied Pate’s guidance and courts invalidated their pre-filled forms at the urging of Trump’s campaign.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa prosecutor has been charged with harassment for allegedly threatening to pursue meritless criminal charges against his ex-fiancee, a doctor from Iran, that he warned could cause her deportation. A criminal complaint alleges that Ryan McCord was an assistant Des Moines County attorney in Burlington when he allegedly harassed the woman for months after they ended their relationship. The woman works as a physician at the Great River Medical Center in Burlington on a visa for foreign-born doctors. McCord allegedly falsely told the woman that he had a pending domestic violence charge against her at the sheriff’s office that could be filed if they didn’t get back together.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will compete for TV audiences in dueling town hall meetings instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned. The two will take questions in different cities on different networks Thursday night — Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the originally scheduled presidential faceoff after debate organizers shifted the format to a virtual event following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. The two candidates are taking care of other electoral necessities first: Trump has a midday rally in battleground North Carolina and Biden is raising campaign cash at a virtual event.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa continues to experience widespread coronavirus spread with public health data showing 1,217 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours and 11 deaths. As of Wednesday, the state had 1,492 deaths and 101,812 confirmed positive cases since the pandemic began. The number of people in hospitals also reached a new high Wednesday with 473 people hospitalized with COVID-19. The number of people admitted with the virus in the past 24 hours was third highest. State data also shows 18 counties with a 14-day average positivity rate of more than 15%, the level at which Gov. Kim Reynolds allows school districts to apply to the state to send students home for online learning temporarily.