Election Day 2024 is one week from Tuesday (10.29) and the deadline for in-person absentee voting is Monday, Nov. 4..
In-person/absentee voting has been strong since opening October 16th. In Floyd County, 1,874 absentee ballots were requested (mailed and in person). As of 5 pm Friday (10.25), 1,410 of those ballots have been received, meaning mailed ballots returned and in-person voting.
In Chickasaw County, the in-person/absentee ballots returned and/or cast had reached 2099, as of 5 pm Friday (10.25).
Any absentee ballots being returned by mail must be received in your county auditor’s office by 8 pm Election Day. Any absentee ballots received after November 5th will not be counted.
If you’re unable to meet the mail-in deadline, you must surrender your absentee ballot at your precinct poll on Election Day and vote in-person. All polls on Election Day will be open from 7 am to 8 pm.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch reported Tuesday that with one week left until the Nov. 5 election, the Iowa Secretary of State’s office said more than 400,000 ballots have been received in the 2024 general election.
In addition to the total 401,760 absentee ballots received as of Monday (10.28) morning, 483,806 total ballots have been issued since the early and absentee voting period began Oct. 16. In that group, 82,046 ballots have been issued by state election officials that voters have yet to return.
Though the absentee voter participation is higher this year a week out from the election than in 2022, when 238,979 absentee ballots had been received by Iowa election officials a week prior to the midterms, the pace of early and absentee voting in the state is behind the previous two presidential election cycles. In 2016, 472,085 absentee ballots had been received a week before the election.
There’s a much larger gap between this year’s voting figures and 2020, when the state reported that 783,310 ballots were received by Oct. 27, a week prior to the election. However, more people voted absentee in 2020 than in typical election cycles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate sent out absentee ballot request forms to voters statewide in the previous presidential election cycle, an action which is no longer allowed under state law. Iowans must now submit the request form to their local county auditor to receive an absentee ballot, or vote early in person at the county auditor’s office or a satellite voting location.
The reduction in absentee ballot requests likely reflects efforts by Republican lawmakers which have shortened the early voting window twice since 2016, now to 20 days.
