Northwest Iowa — Voter turnout in northwest Iowa in this week’s mid-term elections were pretty close to the statewide average, which almost set a record. But in Sioux County, turnout was over six percent higher than the state average.
More than one-million-320-thousand (1,320,000) Iowans cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election. The commissioner of Iowa’s elections, Paul Pate, says that tops the previous record for a mid-term election set in 2014 (1,142,311 votes). Turnout among Iowans who are registered to vote came close to setting a record this year.
Turnout for the mid-term election in 1994 topped 62-percent. Pate, a Republican, was re-elected Tuesday as Iowa’s Secretary of State. On Wednesday, he said his office is still calculating the percentage of Iowans who voted “early” compared to those who voted on Election Day.
Earlier this week, the Secretary of State’s office reported over 529-thousand (529,612) early votes were cast in this election. According to Pate, there were no “serious” problems reported on Election Day at precincts around the state.
Pate says the high turnout shows high interest in the election process.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent personnel to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws. That included Buena Vista County in northwest Iowa. Pate said he’s not heard anything from the DOJ.
Pate’s office says 59.8 percent of O’Brien County voters voted in the election, just shy of the statewide number of 61 percent. Osceola was right in there too with 58.27 percent. A slightly greater percentage of registered Lyon County voters turned out than the statewide percentage, at 61.63 percent. Some of that may be attributed to the fact that in addition to the Congressional and state office races, Lyon County had two contested races for County Board of Supervisors. But there were no such contested races in Sioux County, yet they had the highest turnout in northwest Iowa at 67.33 percent.
Around the area, Dickinson County had the next highest turnout at 64.48 percent, followed by Cherokee County at 62.05 percent, Plymouth with 60.62%, and Clay County with 58.76 percent.
For more information, you can check out the Secretary of State’s website.
