Early Voting Numbers In Mills County Exceeding Expectations
Early voting began Oct. 16 in Iowa.
The voting line outside the Mills County Auditor’s Office was steady last week as early / absentee voting for the Nov. 5 general election got underway.
On Wednesday, Oct. 16 - the first day of early voting in Iowa - 143 in-person ballots were cast at the auditor’s office. It shattered the Mills County record set on opening day of early voting in 2020.
As of Tuesday morning, over 1,550 absentee ballots had been requested in Mills County. That number included over 560 voters who had already cast their ballot in person at the courthouse and nearly 1,000 that have been mailed out.
“I expected that we were going to have a high turnout, but they are coming in higher than the average that we would normally get for the first couple of days of absentee voting,” said Mills County Auditor’s Office Election Assistant Katie Dodge. “For the last six general (elections), that would include three presidentials and three gubernatorial or midterm, the average turnout is about 38 on the first day and we had 143.”
The deadline for requesting a absentee ballot was 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21. Completed absentee ballots must be received at the county auditor’s office no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5.