Auditor: Campaign zeal not matched by voter interest

CEDAR RAPIDS - One result in today's election is already in: The zeal of campaigns to get absentee ballots into people's homes has outstripped interest in people wanting to vote.

As of late Monday afternoon, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said 36,380 voters in Linn County had requested to vote absentee rather than at the polls. However, only 31,546 had mailed those ballots back or voted absentee in person at an early voting site or at the Linn County Auditor's Office.

That means that 4,834 absentee ballots still hadn't been returned by Monday afternoon. Some postmarked by Monday will arrive by the official canvass of votes a week after Election Day and will be counted in the final vote. But most of the not-received ballots have probably been tossed into the garbage, Miller said.

It's no different in Johnson County.

Late Monday afternoon, the Johnson County Auditor's Office said 30,090 absentee ballots have been mailed out or cast during early voting, and about 4,400 absentee ballots mailed out had not yet been returned.

Miller and Travis Weipert, Johnson County auditor, both said the gap between absentee ballots requested and absentee ballots actually used is the result of political campaign workers who go door to door and ask voters if they want an absentee ballot sent to them. Some residents agree just to be accommodating or to get the person at the door to move on, they said.

'We just had someone who brought in an absentee ballot and said, 'I don't want to vote,'” Weipert said.

Miller said the number of absentee ballots mailed out and not used does not compromise the election count. But the number of ballots in circulation that aren't used comes with a downside: 'It creates doubt and skepticism and suspicion,” he said.

Increasingly, a larger percentage of those who vote in Linn County and elsewhere in Iowa vote early and do not vote at the polls on Election Day.

In the 2012 presidential election, 40.65 percent of Linn County voters voted via absentee ballot, and in 2010 - the last time Iowa voted for a governor and a U.S. Senator - 28.38 percent voted early.

In 2010 in Linn County, 22,887 voters cast absentee ballots, and as of Monday afternoon, 31,546 voters already had done so.

The same is true in Benton County, where 2,263 voted absentee in 2010 and 3,203 had already done so in the 2014 vote, Benton County Auditor Jill Marlow said on Monday.

The county and state election computer network will catch someone who might have voted by absentee ballot and then tries to vote at the polls on Election Day, Miller and Weipert said.

However, in terms of Election Day efficiency, both Miller and Weipert urged voters who have absentee ballots at home and have not used them to bring them to the polls on Tuesday if they vote in person. People can also fill the absentee ballot out and bring it to the auditor's office before polls close on Tuesday if someone has missed the deadline to mail it, Miller said.

People can still vote at the polls if they have an outstanding absentee ballot and don't have it with them. However, they cast a provisional ballot, so there can be a check to make sure the absentee ballot doesn't subsequently arrive via the mail, Miller said.

So far, six people who have cast absentee ballots in Linn County have had their ballots thrown out: They voted early and died before the election.

State law requires such ballots to be tossed out if a person dies after casting the absentee ballot but before the envelope holding the absentee ballot is opened by election officials and counted, Miller said.

Miller's office began opening envelopes and counting absentee ballots on Monday, so the results will be ready to be released when polls close at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Miller said about 23,000 of Linn County's 151,000 registered voters are 'inactive,” meaning they've not voted in the last two elections. Another 11,000 eligible to vote are not registered, he said.