Early Voting begins today

Voting Booth

Happy Election Day…. almost. Today is the day the campaigns have been talking about for a while now, the day that early voting begins. According to the secretary of state’s website, Iowans now have 3 ways to vote up until the election. The main way that the campaigns try to get you to vote, is voting by mail. This way, also called voting absentee, is very easy. When a campaign contacts you, most likely they are trying to get you to vote by mail for them. In order to vote by mail, you must first sign a form through the campaign.

This form asks for your birthday, full name, mailing address, and of course your signature. After you have completed this form, the campaigns have 72 hours to return it to your county auditor before it becomes void. Once your auditor has received it, you will be sent your ballot. You have up until the day before the election to return these ballots. Once you have turned in your ballot, it is placed in a secure location so it can be counted on election night.

Another common way of early voting is voting directly at your county auditor’s office. To do this, you do to your county auditor office and inform them that you would like to vote early. They will give you the proper items that way you can vote.

The third and less common way of early voting is voting at a satellite station. At the discretion of your county auditor, satellite voting stations may be set up through out your county to help residents vote early. These stations are similar to the polling stations you would find on election day. County Auditors are required to inform residents of the opening of these stations not less than seven days from the day they are set to be opened.

As a reminder, you can take advantage of these early voting options up until election day, which is in 40 days.

Below is a listing of the current absentee ballot requests statewide courtesy of the secretary of state’s website.

Democrat: 37, 219

Republican: 14, 219

No Party: 11, 116

Other: 37