Northwest Iowa — Voter turnout in the recent election was strong in northwest Iowa. And absentee voting was popular.
According to the Iowa Secretary of State, O’Brien County had 76.49% voter turnout. They say there are 9,415 active and 508 inactive registered voters. The stats tell us that 3,908 people voted on election day, and nearly that many voted early or absentee, with 3,682 choosing that option. There were a total of 7,590 people that voted in the election. Very nearly half of the voters voted absentee — 48.5%.
O’Brien County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Barb Rohwer says 2020 the highest absentee turnout, but she says she can’t say if it was due to COVID or because of the mass mailing of the absentee requests by the Secretary of State. Rohwer says she believes that we will find that the level of absentee participation will stay around this rate if not higher. According to Rohwer, “Once voters experience the convenience of voting this way, they tend to continue.” She says she thinks this may become the new normal.
Sioux County had 83.19% turnout — which is one of the highest turnouts in the state. The figures tell us there are 22,086 active and 943 inactive registered voters. They say 10,735 people voted on election day, and 8,423 people voted early or absentee. There were a total of 19,158 people that voted in the election, or very nearly 44 percent.
Sioux County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Ryan Dokter says Sioux County’s turnout by percentage was just slightly less than in the 2016 general election, when turnout was 83.57%. But he says that is mainly due to the fact that the county has just over 1,000 more registered voters in 2020 than in 2016. Nonetheless, Dokter says it was still a very good turnout and right in line with 2012 and 2016 voter turnout.
He says absentees for 2016 were 5,784 or 31.55% of the total vote. Absentees for 2012 were 5,649 or 32.55% of the total vote. Dokter says 31% to 33% of the total vote is about normal for absentee ballots in Sioux County, so 44 percent is pretty high, but that’s to be expected with the continuing pandemic.
Osceola County had 77.41% turnout. They say there are 4,145 active and 179 inactive registered voters. The stats tell us that 1,872 people voted on election day, with 1,475 people voting early or absentee in Osceola County. There were a total of 3,347 that voted in the election. That means about 44% of Osceola County voters voted early or absentee.
Osceola County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Rochelle Van Tilburg tells us the 2020 turnout was higher than four years ago. She says in 2016 Osceola County had a turnout of 2,375 voted at the polls and 876 absentees. She says she believes the record of absentee voting was broken with this election, “…but of course that was because of COVID.”
Lyon County had 79.69% turnout. The figures tell us that there are 8,318 active and 371 inactive registered voters in the county. They say 3,546 Lyon County citizens voted on election day, with nearly the same number voting early or absentee — with 3,378 choosing that option. There were a total of 6,924 who voted in the election. That means about 48.8% of voters in Lyon County voted early or absentee.
Lyon County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Jen Smit tells us that absentee voting was higher this year, but not overall turnout. In the last Presidential Election in 2016, she says Lyon County had just slightly higher turnout at 79.94%. That year, 2,023 absentee ballots were sent out, with 1,966 ballots received back. Out of the total voter count of 6,431 in 2016, 4,465 people voted at the polls on Election Day. So that’s 69.4% voting at the polls, and 30.6% voting absentee that year.
