By Zach Jensen,
Aaron Zander, age 36, Decorah, Luther's head swim coach, receives his ballot from Luther Interlibrary Loan and Technical Services Librarian Emily Mineart the afternoon of Oct. 16, during the Luther College satellite absentee voting event at the Dahl Centennial Union. Winneshiek County Auditor Ben Steines said about 130 votes were cast during the event. (Photo by Zach Jensen)
About 1,100 voters cast their votes last week during the first days of early voting in Winneshiek County, but County Auditor Ben Steines said that turnout, which includes a special voting event held Oct. 16 at Luther College, isn’t extraordinary.
Luther’s turnout was actually the lowest the county has seen on campus since before the 2008 presidential election, which saw 426 people vote. That number remained nearly the same during the 2012 election and increased to 481 during the 2016 election. A total of 197 people voted on campus during the 2020 election. Last week’s satellite absentee event saw just 139 people vote at Luther College. However, Steines said that doesn’t mean Luther students and local residents who live near the campus aren’t voting at all.
“It either means fewer students plan to participate,” Steines said, “or more students are voting absentee from where their home is. We do not track Luther student voters specifically, so we have no way to determine how many participated in total. They could have voted by mail, at the auditor’s office, or (will vote) on Election Day.”
However, Steines added that the county has also mailed out fewer ballots than it has ahead of past elections. He noted that decrease may be an indicater more people are choosing to vote in person. Steines said, as of last week, his office had received a total of 1,373 ballots requests by mail — including overseas ballots.
In all, about 500 people voted on Oct. 16 in Winneshiek County, while about 300 voted last Thursday, and another 300 voted Friday. Because votes aren’t counted until election day, Steines said he and his staff won’t know what the cast ballots indicate until then.
“All the ballots will be counted on Election Day by a 15-member bipartisan team that comes in and counts them,” the auditor said.
Steines said, since early voting has begun, he has seen some short lines of people waiting to vote, but thanks to more than 20 voting booths, he expects voters will still have a ballot in their hands within about five minutes, even if they arrive during the busiest time of the day.
“I encourage people to vote ahead of time,” Steines said. “It’s a safe, secure and convenient way to vote, and it’s nice that people can utilize that option.”
In addition to the candidate races, voters will be asked to decide three public measures on back of their ballots, which Steines said consist of two state constitutional amendments and the Decorah Community School District bond issue.
Sample ballots containing these amendments and the bond issue can be found under “Election Information” at winneshiekcounty.iowa.gov/departments/auditor.
“There are 38 sample ballots available, depending on which township you live in,” Steines said. “Most of the options are the same, but depending on where you live will determine whether you have the Decorah bond issue or not. And, all the townships have separate township clerks and trustees raises.”
The Winneshiek County Auditor’s office is open for early voting from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday through Nov. 4 and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 2. Mail-in ballots must be received by the county auditor’s office by 8 p.m. on Election Day, or they can delivered by hand.
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