Thousands of Floyd County ballots in the mail as voting begins

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Almost 3,000 absentee ballots were mailed out Monday by the Floyd County Auditor’s Office as voting officially began in Iowa for the 2020 general election.

And it was announced that two polling places in Floyd County — the Marble Rock Library and the Cedar Valley Transportation Center — will be closed this election due to a lack of poll workers.

Monday was the first day that absentee ballots were mailed, and also the first day that people could vote in person at the courthouse.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said Monday morning that people had already been in to vote.

“The first one was here about 10 minutes to 8,” she said. People can vote in person at the Auditor’s Office during regular office hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and extended hours and a couple of Saturdays will be available closer to the election.

Carr said her office had so far received 2,857 absentee ballot requests, and all those ballots went into the mail on Monday. Further absentee ballots will be mailed out as requests are received.

In the last presidential election, in 2016, there were 8,159 votes cast in Floyd County, including 3,524 absentee votes cast by mail or in person prior to the election.

Carr said she has never before had this many absentee requests by the first day ballots are available to be mailed. She had said previously she expects to have more absentee votes this year than votes on Election Day, Nov. 3

Three people had already come in Monday, saying they had mailed a request for an absentee ballot, but then changed their minds and wanted to vote in person, Carr said.

She said if anyone has such a change of heart or is concerned about the mail, her office would prefer that they wait until their receive their absentee ballot, then bring that ballot in to either vote in person or drop in the secure drop box at the courthouse entrance or in the Auditor’s Office.

If people request an absentee ballot but then want to vote in person without bringing the ballot in, they need to fill out paperwork saying the ballot was lost or never received.

“That isn’t even an accurate thing,” Carr said, but that missing ballot needs to be accounted for. All three of the people who had changed their minds and wanted to vote Monday said they would come back after they had received their ballots in the mail, she added.

Requests for absentee ballot must be received by the Auditor’s Office by 5 p.m. Oct. 24.

Additional in-person voting time will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Friday and Monday before the election, Oct. 30 and Nov. 2, and the Auditor’s Office will be open for voting in person from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the two Saturdays before the election, Oct. 24 and 31.

Carr also announced Monday that the Marble Rock polling site, affecting the city of Marble Rock as well as Scott, Union and Pleasant Grove townships, will not be open for the upcoming election.

It had previously been announced that the Cedar Valley Transportation Center (CVTC) polling site, affecting the city of Nashua and St. Charles and Riverton townships, would be closed.

Both sites will be closed because of a lack of experienced poll workers to staff the sites, Carr said, and because of the necessity that poll workers be equally balanced between the political parties.

“This was a tough decision,” she said.

She said more than 50 people who had been poll workers in the past have declined to work this year, for a variety of reasons, but many of them because of concerns over COVID-19.

She said she had poll workers lined up for Marble Rock, but two of them changed their minds and said they don’t want to work this year.

Carr said she has a list of about 25 new people who would be willing to work, “but I can’t put all new people with one or maybe two seasoned poll workers, and I have to party balance.”

Letters were sent last week to registered voters who usually use the CVTC site, telling them they will vote at the courthouse this election, but also including absentee ballot request forms for those who want to request a ballot to vote that way, Carr said.

Similar letters will go to the Marble Rock site voters, telling them their voting site this year is the Rockford Community Center, and also sending absentee ballot request forms.

“We’re pushing vote by mail or vote in person absentee, and I think those are our safest ways to do business now,” Carr said.

“But polling places will be safe as well. We have good measures in place for our polling places as well,” she quickly added.