Early voting is now underway in Iowa and dozens of people were anxious to be among the first to cast ballots Thursday morning. A line of 60 to 70 people formed outside the Scott County Administration building in Davenport, before the doors opened at 8 a.m.
Any registered voter in Iowa is allowed to fill out and submit a ballot before the November 6th election, either by voting early or submitting an absentee ballot.
As of Monday, registered Democrats had requested 109,709 absentee ballots in Iowa while Republicans had requested 20,458. According to the Scott County Auditor, as of Wednesday, there were 7,141 Democrats that requested absentee ballots and only 1,435 Republicans. There's no way to gauge exactly how many people will turn out for early voting.
For more information on early voting and voting using a mail-in absentee ballot, go to your county website or see below from the Iowa Secretary of State.
September 27th is the 40th day before election day, and the first day that absentee ballots may be voted in a county auditor's office. Any Iowa voter may request an absentee ballot if they expect they cannot go to the polls on election day. Voting an absentee ballot may be done in one of three methods:
- Voters may vote in-person in their county auditor's office during the regular business hours. The last day that a voter can vote an absentee ballot at the county auditor's office is Monday, November 5th. Regular business hours for Iowa county auditors can be found by clicking on the relevant county at this link: http://sos.iowa.gov/elections/auditors/auditorslist.html
- Voters may request an absentee ballot be mailed. The last day to request an absentee ballot by mail is Friday, November 2nd at 5:00. If you request a ballot by mail, it must be returned to the county auditor's office by the following deadlines:
- In-person delivery – Tuesday, November 6th by 9:00 PM
- Mail delivery – postmarked no later than Monday, November 5th and received no later than 12:00 PM on Tuesday, November 13th. Postmarks are not guaranteed. Please mail your ballot early to make sure it is received on time.
- Satellite voting stations may be offered. Check with your local county auditor's office to see if satellite voting is available.
A voter who chooses to vote an absentee ballot by one of these methods will be asked to fill out an official Iowa absentee ballot request form.
Persons soliciting absentee ballot request forms while acting as an agent for a political party or candidate must offer a receipt to the voter for the completed request form.
Track your absentee ballot at https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/absenteeballotstatus/search.aspx.
Additional information and the official absentee ballot request form can be found at http://sos.iowa.gov/elections/electioninfo/absenteeinfo.html
