By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

At least 200,000 Iowans have already cast votes in this year’s General Election.

The latest information on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website indicates county auditors have issued 273,000 absentee ballots and 199,358 were returned by mid-morning on Monday. That’s roughly a return rate of roughly 73%.

Here’s the party breakdown so far: about 55% of the early votes are from Democrats, 31% are from Republicans and most of the rest are from independents who list “no party” on their voter registration.

Fifty-two percent of the “early votes” so far were either cast in person at a county auditor’s office or satellite voting site — or voters used a designated drop box for their absentee ballot.

That means a little less than half of the early votes already cast in Iowa’s 2022 General Election were delivered to county auditors’ offices through the U.S. Mail. Iowa law now requires absentee ballots to be inside your county auditor’s office by 8 p.m. next Tuesday. Election officials say the window for mailing ballots is closing. Jennifer Garms is president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.
“Once again, I would just recommend that if you have the opportunity to bring it into the office, to do that route,” says Jennifer Garms, president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.

Postmarks and postal bar codes showing you mailed a ballot before Election Day no longer apply. Voters can check online at www.voterready.iowa.gov to see if their ballot has been received.

In-person early voting at county auditors’ offices and satellite voting locations continues through November 7th.