DAVENPORT, Iowa — Early voting in Scott County started on October 19 and goes through November 7, the day before the 2022 midterm general election.
That process involves some specific steps voters need to take for each vote to count, which are different than when voting on election day.
Most importantly, each yellow envelope has a "voter's affidavit" that must be signed by each voter before the ballot envelope is placed into the ballot box.
"Every vote needs to count, and the only way we can do that is with you signing," said Karen Cawiezell, a poll worker with the Scott County Auditor's Office who is helping with her third election.
Not signing the front is more common than you might think. About three dozen voters still need to come back to sign that envelope as of Wednesday afternoon, Scott County Auditor Kerri Tompkins told News 8.
Tompkins also added that this is not uncommon. When mail-in ballots first start coming in, it is not unusual for the county to have more than 100 unsigned ballot envelopes.
"We have a sign on all the boxes saying, 'Hey please make sure that it's signed.' But some people are in a hurry and I understand it, it's not something that you're thinking about," Tompkins said.
If you forget to sign the envelope, poll workers like Cawiezell then have to track down each voter.
"We're calling or writing to you and saying, 'Hey your vote's not going to count unless you come in.'"
The Auditor's Office is tracking that important envelope but isn't tracking the individual ballot.
"We write down a sequence number when we put it in. it will tell us what ballot number and a sequence number," Cawiezell said. "We write that on the envelope that you are signing."
"We want to make sure your vote gets to be counted," Tompkins said. "You go through all that work, right, to either come in or take the time through the mail and fill it out, a lot of people forget that piece, that signature."
The satellite early voting locations will close on Saturday, November 5. You can see the schedule for each location here. Early voting is still an option on November 7 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Voters who receive a phone call from the Auditor's Office because of an unsigned ballot envelope have until Tuesday, November 8, at 8 p.m. to sign the ballot so it counts on election day. You can do that at the Auditor's Office on the fifth floor of the Scott County Administrative Center in downtown Davenport.
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