Election Day voting on slower pace than previous city elections

JOHNSON COUNTY - With the 8 p.m. closing of the polls, early voting results have been reported for Johnson County.

According to the Johnson County Auditor's Office, 1,847 early votes were cast in the county's city elections.

More than 6,250 absentee ballots were counted in the 2013 election.

Precincts are starting to report, but as far as early voting results go in Iowa City's contested council race, Rockne Cole and Jim Throgmorton are leading among at-large candidates with 51 percent and 62 percent, respectively.

Pauline Taylor is leading incumbent Rick Dobyns with 57 percent in District A early voting results and in District C, John Thomas has 53 percent of early votes to Scott McDonough's 47 percent.

Iowa City has 25 total precincts to report.

The lower early voting turnout coincides with today's voter turnout at the polls, which had reached 5,267 votes - or about 7 percent turnout - countywide by 6 p.m.

Final voting results will be canvassed next Tuesday.

While turnout has been lower than the last city elections, with a 21-ordinance item on that 2013 ballot, Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert said this vote isn't entirely comparable to the last election.

Weipert did note at 3 p.m. that Johnson County turnout was 'pretty low.”

That said, more contested races saw a higher percentage of voter turnout, with Iowa City seeing almost 9 percent so far. University Heights, which has a list of write-in candidates and a council term item on the ballot, has seen a turnout of just shy of 30 percent so far and in Oxford, where voters are deciding on a library levy, nearly 28 percent of voters had cast votes by 6 p.m.

'Those voters are showing up,” Weipert said, speaking of Oxford specifically. 'We think a lot of that has to do with their library levy vote.”

Linn County does not have a 6 p.m. voter turnout update, but as of 3 p.m., 12,801 votes had been cast at the polls - or 10.92 percent turnout - not including absentee ballots. By this time in the November 2013 city elections, 14,833 votes had been cast countywide, but that made for 10.84 percent, according to the Linn County Auditor's Office.