Northwest Iowa — We’ve heard stories from around the country about record numbers of voters taking advantage of “early voting” in this election cycle, but here in northwest Iowa that hasn’t been the case, at least not as of a week before the general election.
We talked with the County Auditors of O’Brien, Osceola, Sioux and Lyon Counties to get a view of the absentee ballot situation in our little corner of the world.
O’Brien County Auditor Barb Rohwer says that, as of Wednesday morning, her office has received 2,002 absentee ballots. Rohwer says that is down from the 2,500 they received for the 2012 election cycle. Rohwer said that when the absentee ballots became available, they “came out of the gate like gangbusters”, but it has slowed down since. As for voter registration, Rohwer says her office has seen more younger people become engaged this year, which is reflected in the voter registration records. She said she has also seen some people who were registering to vote for the first time, even though they were well over the minimum voting age.
In Osceola County, Auditor Barb Echter says that, as of Wednesday morning, they have received a total of 787 absentee ballots, which is close to on-track with the total of 800 that were returned for the 2012 election. Echter says her office hasn’t seen any surge in voter registrations.
Lyon County Auditor Jennifer Smit tells KIWA that, as of Wednesday morning, they have received a total of 1,763 absentee ballots, down from the 2012 total of 2,378. She also indicated no major surge in voter registration this cycle.
Sioux County Election Administrator Lisa Rowenhorst says that, of the 5,463 absentee ballots her office has sent out this year, 4,367 of them have been returned as of Wednesday morning. She says that they continue to receive a fair amount of additional absentee ballots each day. In 2012, Sioux County election officials sent out 5,982 absentee ballots, of which 5,792 were returned. Rowenhorst says voter registration is up in her county for this year’s general election.
All four of the election officials to whom we spoke indicated that they are having more absentee ballots returned each day, and that the totals are expected to swell by the time election day rolls around next Tuesday.
