DAVENPORT, Iowa — The number of absentee ballot requests in Scott County are down from this time four years ago. At this time in 2012, there were about 11,000 requests and now it's fewer than 5,000 according to Scott County Auditor, Roxanna Moritz.
Moritz says the decline is because she believes the Republican Party of Iowa and the Iowa Democratic Party are holding off on sending absentee ballot requests to some voters until her office has absentee ballot envelopes ready.
"There was concern there were absentee ballots that weren't picked-up in the last presidential election and governor's election and possibly because those absentee ballot requests were going out too soon that people forgot about them; they lost them, they don't remember wanting them so they didn't vote them," said Mortiz, who is running unopposed for Scott County Auditor.
Mortiz said by September of the last presidential election, the Republican Party of Iowa and the Iowa Democratic Party had already sent four rounds of absentee ballot requests to voters across the state.
The Scott County Auditor's office expects official absentee ballots to arrive on Thursday or Friday; the office will send them to voters who have requested them by next week.
Voting by mail is one way to vote early. The other way is to vote at a satellite location.
Thursday is the deadline for Scott County voters to submit a petition to request a six-hour satellite voting station, however Moritz says she has worked with both the democratic and republican parties to establish regular satellite voting locations for early voting.
Satellite voting locations:
- St. Ambrose
- Davenport Public Library (Fairmount Street Branch)
- Davenport Public Library (Eastern Avenue Branch)
- Bettendorf Public Library
- Eldridge Library
- Scott County Auditors Office
"We right now don't think I am going to be petitioned but I am going to hold off until [September 22] and if that's the case then all of those sites will open up on [October 17] for three full weeks of early voting," said Moritz.
Early voting in Iowa begins September 29, 2016.