Early voting is up in Linn and Johnson despite new law

Despite a state law passed earlier this year limiting early and absentee voting, the number of people voting early in Tuesday’s local elections in Linn and Johnson counties was up from similar past elections.

County auditors said the surge in early voting was due to hotly-contested races and because auditors tried new things, such as printing absentee ballot request forms in the PennySaver and hosting a “Friday Night Lights”-inspired polling site at a Solon football game.

“Contested races drive the turnout, and money issues — in this case the gambling issue — drive turnout,” said Linn County Auditor Joel Miller.

As of Tuesday morning, Linn County had 9,506 returned absentee ballots, which was about 96 percent of those requested. This is compared with 4,721 absentee ballots voted in the 2019 combined city and school election and 2,971 in 2017’s city elections.

Miller said those earlier elections aren’t truly “apples-to-apples” comparisons but are the closest available. In 2017, the city and school elections were held separately. Unlike in 2017 and 2019, COVID-19 still has some residents concerned about voting in person; and the races and ballot issues this fall in Linn County are different from previous years.

The Cedar Rapids mayoral race posed a three-way fight among incumbent Mayor Brad Hart, TrueNorth executive Amara Andrews and Women Lead Change Chief Executive Officer Tiffany O’Donnell. Linn County voters also faced a referendum on renewing Linn County’s gambling authorization and questions on extending an existing sales tax to pay for infrastructure projects.

Outside of her polling place at the Linn County Harris Building on Sixth Street SE, Molly Monk, 27, said she loves to vote by mail. But here she was, casting her ballot in-person on Election Day.

“Absentee ballots are great, but with everything that happened in 2020, watching how the postal office was slow getting ballots turned in, just wondering whether or not I would make it on time if I got an absentee ballot, I am doing in-person Election Day voting, which is not my norm and it's probably not necessary, but here we are.”

As of about 5:30 p.m. Monday, the last day of early voting, Johnson County had 3,817 returned absentee ballots, which was nearly 98 percent of the 3,904 requested.

This was an increase from 2,543 absentee ballots returned (92 percent of those requested) in 2019’s city and school elections and 2,225 absentee ballots returned (98.6 percent of those requested) in 2017’s city elections.

Completed absentee ballots could still be counted if they arrived by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Before the new election law, votes still could be counted if they were postmarked before Election Day and received by the Monday after.

Gov. Kim Reynolds in March signed into law Senate File 413, which clamped down on early and absentee voting. Republicans said the bill would reduce voter fraud, although there is no evidence of systemic election fraud in Iowa.

Among other things, the law cuts the number of days to vote early from 29 to 20, prohibits auditors from mailing absentee ballots to voters until 20 days before an election and bars auditors from sending ballots unless requested.

“From my perspective, it’s the late date that we can start mailing ballots,” John Deeth, of the Johnson County Auditor’s Office, said about the provision he feels is most damaging to voter participation. “Twenty days is just not enough time for a by-mail voter to fix a problem, if they have to make two round trips through the mail.”

Ballot request forms must be received 15 days before the election under the new law. Johnson County received about 40 forms past the deadline, Deeth said.

“We were required by law to notify voters by mail and (if possible) by phone,” he said.

Linn County had 296 late absentee ballot request forms.

The new voting law also limited satellite voting to sites requested by voters.

By request, the Johnson County Auditor’s Office held early voting on Oct. 22 at Solon High School to coincide with a home football game.

Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert tweeted about the event Oct. 20 with a meme of “Friday Night Lights” Coach Eric Taylor.

To make up for not being able to send out absentee ballots without a request, Miller ran a blank absentee ballot request form in the PennySaver local advertising circular. His office received 1,068 completed forms through this outreach.

Miller said he thinks he’s the only county auditor to do this, but others might be scared of facing a $10,000 fine for failing to carry out the state election law. The new voting law makes it a felony for auditors or other election officials to violate voting guidance from the Iowa Secretary of State.

“Nobody wants to be the first auditor to get the technical infraction,” he said. “I’m also going to err on the side of trying to make voting convenient for voters.”

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com

Gazette reporter Marissa Payne contributed to this report.