Early voting seems to stay popular

WASHINGTON — The Washington County Courthouse has been busy this year handling absentee ballots, as thousands of Iowans show up to cast their votes ahead of Election Day.

The last few weeks have seen voters lined up to fill out their ballots in the county courthouse lobby. Washington County Auditor Dan Widmer said officials had considered setting up additional voting booths — the foyer currently has just four — but didn’t want to obstruct the paths to other offices like the treasurer, assessor and clerk of court.

Instead, some hurried voters hitting the polls before work or between errands have sacrificed privacy in favor of speed, filling out ballots on a countertop in the lobby, or whatever other hard surfaces they can find.

“It’s been something else,” Washington County Auditor Dan Widmer said. “It’s not at all uncommon that you go out into the hallway, and you look and people are backed up even out to the top of the west stairway … like, 15 waiting in line.”

Widmer said over 4,250 absentee ballots had been cast in the county by early afternoon on Oct. 31. The sum already surpassed 2022 midterm absentee turnout — comprising 2,645 voters — by leaps and bounds, with days to go before the Nov. 5 election.

While the total includes both mail-in and in-person absentee ballots, Widmer said the majority of early voters had come to the courthouse themselves.

The trend follows a spike in absentee ballots in 2020, when isolation efforts in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a turnout-driving presidential election year, drove absentee voting numbers up to 7,089 in Washington County.

“The tough part is trying to determine what ‘normal’ is,” Widmer said. “We saw a big increase four years ago due to COVID, and it may not be quite to that level, but in general, we have been very busy.”

Voters said they found the early option more convenient.

“I just wasn’t sure what the crowds were going to be like on Tuesday,” said Stephanie Brown, who voted early for the first time on Friday at the Washington County Courthouse. “Last election I waited outside the (polling place) for almost an hour.”

Not every absentee voter is new to the practice. Washington County records show 4,715 absentee ballots cast in 2016, long before the pandemic. For some, an early vote at the courthouse requires less travel than a trip to their designated polling place, of which Washington County has 10.

Debra Lueck, whose Election Day precinct is in Wellman, is one such voter.

“We live out in the country, and we’re closer to Washington than where we’d normally have to vote,” she said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com