Henry County primary saw considerably low voter turnout

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Auditor Shelly Barber expressed concern about “very poor” turnout of voters for the June 4 primary election in Henry County.

“We only had an 8.7% turnout which was less than half of what we had four years ago in the primary election,” Barber stated after saying the overall election went well.

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According to the voting results available on the Henry County website, 1,159 ballots were cast even though 13,326 voters are currently registered in the county. Barber clarified that the total number of voters for the county includes active and inactive voters.

“There are a little over 8,000 that are actually active that are voting on a regular basis,” Barber said.

Many individuals visited Barber the day of the election in search of information concerning what they would vote for and where they would cast their ballots.

While Barber says she heard from the public that they did not see signage for voting, the information was made available to the public.

“It was in the paper, it was on the radio,” she said. “There were a lot of political candidate signs out. It was on Facebook. It was on our website. I don’t know what else to do.”

Barber expressed concerns about the turnout and these types of questions specifically due to the next election scheduled for Sept. 10 when residents will need to vote on issues such as the tax levy needed for moving Emergency Medical Services to an essential county service.

“You’ll need to do a lot of education,” she told those on the committee heading up this move for EMS in the county.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com