Absentee voting in Pottawattamie County passes 2022 total ahead of Tuesday’s election
Absentee voting in Pottawattamie County has already passed the total for the entire 2022 midterm election, and voters have until 4:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, to cast an absentee ballot in person at the courthouse before Tuesday’s general election. County Auditor Mary Ann Hanusa, who also serves as the county’s commissioner of elections, said absentee ballots passed the 2022 total by the morning of Oct. 23, with more than a week of voting still remaining. In-person absentee voting began Oct. 14 at the auditor’s office on the second floor of the Pottawattamie County Courthouse, 227 S. 6th St. Hanusa said ballots cast at the courthouse are still considered absentee ballots because the voter is absent from the polls on Election Day, and they are not counted until Election Day.
Hanusa said several factors appear to be driving interest. The U.S. Senate race features Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of eastern Iowa and Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, giving local voters a candidate from close to home. She said it is also the first time since 1968 that Iowa has had an open U.S. Senate seat and an open governor’s race on the same ballot. Hanusa said her office has no connection to the campaigns or their advertising. “We administer elections and all the politics is done somewhere else,” she said.
Voters casting absentee ballots at the courthouse will find a new process this year. They now fill out the absentee ballot request form and show identification at tables on the ground floor, where staff check the forms before sending voters to the second floor to vote. Hanusa said she made the change after seeing a crowd fill the second floor before the 2024 general election, and she said voters have responded well to it.
The county also replaced its voting equipment this year. Hanusa said the ballot tabulators had been in use for 13 years, beyond their expected 10-year life, and the electronic poll books used to check in voters were also replaced. The equipment comes from Election Systems & Software, an Omaha-based company the county has used for years. The new tabulators will alert a voter who marks too many choices in a race so the ballot can be corrected. Hanusa said none of the county’s voting equipment is connected to the internet.
Voters at the polls must show identification, most commonly a driver’s license, state identification card, passport or military ID. A full list and sample ballots are posted on the county’s website. The county has 40 precincts and 66 different ballots, depending on where a voter lives. Ballots are printed on both sides this year, and the back includes judicial retention questions and a proposed constitutional amendment dealing with taxation. “We do tell people to turn it over,” Hanusa said. Voters who go to the wrong polling place will be directed to the correct one. Those who insist on voting at the wrong site will receive a provisional ballot, which will not count unless the voter later shows that they live in that precinct.
On election night, absentee results will be reported first, followed by Election Day votes as sealed flash drives arrive from the precincts. Hanusa cautioned that early absentee numbers may not reflect final results. Precinct election officials, who are paid $200 for a day that begins at 6 a.m., will staff the polls, which are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Editor’s note: More from Hanusa on how the county counts and secures ballots, how absentee ballots are processed and how voters can prepare is available in the full interview on Council Bluffs Today on the Loess Hills Media YouTube channel.
