Early voting numbers continue climbing

Now a week into early voting, auditors in Southeast Iowa say they are continuing to see an influx of absentee ballot requests as well as heavy traffic for early in-person voting.

Henry County Auditor Shelly Barber said in addition to sending out an additional 129 ballots since Oct. 5, the courthouse has seen 445 come in-person to vote early as of last Friday. In total, the county has mailed out a total of 3,346 ballots.

With three more weeks of early voting to go, Barber added she expects the county to exceed the approximately 4,600 early and absentee votes the county had in the general election four years prior.

'We'll send anywhere from 30 to 35 ballots a day. The first day, we sent 3,217,” she said.

Barber added she expects to see requests begin to slow at least a little as the election nears.

In Jefferson County, second Deputy Auditor Abbie DeKleine said 549 voters came in the first week of early voting to cast a ballot in-person. Her office also sent an additional 189 mail-in ballot requests in addition to the 3,000 the county sent out on the first day of early voting.

Dan Widmer, Washington County auditor, said the county has already responded to 4,700 absentee ballot requests. Like Barber, Widmer said he expects the county to exceed the number of absentee ballots it saw in the general election in 2016.

'The 4,700 compares to 5,000 for the general election four years ago. With a month to go, I'm thinking it's going to be 5,500,” he said.

With the general election just three weeks away, the countdown for Iowa voters to figure out how to get their ballot in by voting day has begun.

Those looking to request a mail-in absentee ballot should do so by 5 p.m. on Oct. 24, DeKleine said. The deadline is the last day auditor offices can mail out ballots.

'We have a lobby set up outside of our office with absentee request forms. Someone will be out there to help them,” DeKleine said of how Jefferson County residents can request ballots. Voters can also print the form and fill it out ahead of time before bringing it to the auditor's office.

For mail-in ballots to count for the election, they must be mailed to the offices by noon on Nov. 9, when votes are canvassed, and must be postmarked Monday, Nov. 2, Barber said.

'I would say get [the ballot] in as soon as possible. That's the best way to make sure their vote will count,” Barber said.

Mail-in ballots can also be hand-carried to polls on Election Day as well as submitted in a dropbox if available, Barber added.

Those who plan to vote early in-person can do so until the day before the election. Widmer said his office will be open two Saturdays, Oct. 24 and Oct. 31, to provide more opportunities for voting.

'We just want to make it more easy to use to vote absentee in-person,” Widmer said.

Widmer said a voter who hadn't previously filled out an absentee ballot request can do so when they come to vote early in-person and can vote immediately after handing in the request.

To vote early in-person, the auditors said voters need a form of photo identification, the most common of which would be an Iowa driver's license. All registered voters will receive a four-number voting pin, which can be used as a form of identification when voting.

'If they don't have either one of those things, I would say to call our office. There are multiple options we can discuss on what they could bring in,” DeKleine added.

Barber said those who have recently moved to the state can register to vote 'without proof of who they are and where they reside” until Oct. 24. After the 24th, voters will need to provide proof of residency to register.

The auditors said voters are allowed to wear political face masks and other clothing items to the polls if they are not electioneering for a candidate, but cannot linger in the polling area. Similarly, cars with large political signs for candidates will not be allowed to park in polling location parking lots for extended periods of time. Poll workers will not be wearing or have any political items that may sway voters while working.