Early voting for the November general election started today. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate oversees elections in the state.
“First day, we’re excited, it’s kind of like starting Christmas early,” Pate says. County auditors are also sending out absentee ballots today for those who have already requested them. “I think the count I was hearing was about 70,000 absentee ballots were mailed out across the state. And that’s a little higher than what was out two years ago, which to me sounds like it means we’re going to have a pretty strong voter turnout,” he says. You still have until October 19th to request an absentee ballot.
Pate says the mail-in ballot is not the only way you can vote early. “You can also vote early absentee which means go down to your auditor’s office and do that in some communities, you also can. voting satellite sites. And you can find those by going to your county auditor’s website,” he explains. Pate says voting early absentee is requires the same verification as voting on election day. “Bring your ID. Over 90% of our voters have a state driver’s license or a state ID. That’s probably your easiest one to use,” Pate says. “And don’t forget that because we don’t let you have an attester anymore. So you have to have your own ID. Otherwise, they’re going to probably ask you to vote provisional and come back later with your ID so they can make sure you are who you say you are.”
Pate says you should check now to be sure you are properly registered to vote. “Go online to voterready.iowa.gov and just look yourself up to make sure that your voter registration is still current and it’s at the right address because some people move and they forgot to change your voter registration or as you said if it’s been a long time since you voted you may have been moved off the voter rolls so you want to make sure you’re back on there and you can register to vote right back on-line again,” Pate says.
Pate says your mailed ballot has to get there by election day. “If we don’t have it in our possession, meaning the county auditor, by 8 p.m. November 3rd, it won’t count. When I say in their possession, it means the auditor has to have it. can’t be in a mailbox somewhere. So we really encourage you to Turn it around as quickly as you can,” he says.
Pate says you can track the progress of you ballot at voterready.iowa.gov, and it’ll show when the auditor received your request for that mail-in ballot. It will show when the auditor mailed it to you, and it will show when you returned it. Pate says if you’re seeing that they didn’t get your ballot, you have a chance to follow up with the auditor to find out what the status is and possibly still have a chance to come down and vote in person.
