Some Cedar Rapids residents getting new voter information cards

Some Cedar Rapids residents will be getting a second voter information card to correct a polling-place address.

Many Iowa voters are receiving the cards this week. County auditors have the option to mail them every 10 years after redistricting sets new precinct and district boundaries.

Cards sent to the 25th Precinct in southeast Cedar Rapids included an incorrect polling place address. Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said another mailing will be made with the correct address, the Calvin Sinclair Presbyterian Church 715 38th St. SE, in time for the March 6 local-option sales tax referendum.

In addition to polling place information, the cards include each voter's birth date, address, state Senate and House districts.  Voters who moved or find an error may send the correct information to Miller's office on an enclosed postage-paid card.

Erin Rapp, spokeswoman for Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, said 41 county auditors opted for the cards, mailed last week to voters in participating Eastern Iowa counties. The other counties are participating in a national program to identify individual voters who have moved within or outside their county.

Not all voters are directly affected by redistricting, but Miller noted many Linn County polling places have moved out of schools.

"People need to look at (the card) because we changed a lot of polling places," he said. "We moved from schools because parents didn't like the potential for criminals and sex offenders coming in to vote."

There are about 141,000 registered voters in the county. Undeliverable cards will be returned to the auditors' offices, and those names will be struck from the voter rolls.