DAVENPORT, IOWA (September 3, 2020) — Roxanna Moritz, Scott County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, reminds voters that they need to submit only one request for an absentee ballot for the November 3, 2020 General Election. Her office has received hundreds of calls from voters who have received multiple requests from various organizations.
“Several organizations have sent request forms urging voters to submit the forms to vote by mail. By law these forms must be return addressed to the Auditor’s Office. Some voters are confused and assume that my office has sent multiple forms, and then assume they need to return requests when we already have their requests in hand,” Moritz said. “We have more than 30,000 requests already in our office, and we welcome more. We just don’t need more than one request from each voter,” Moritz said.
Voters can track their requests on line at https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/absenteeballotstatus/absentee/search
After the requests are received voters can also track when their ballots are mailed and when they are received back at the Auditor’s Office.
The Scott County Auditor’s Office encourages voting by absentee mail-in ballot to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “We have to take steps to limit exposure to the corona virus for the county’s precinct election officials and the general public,” Moritz said. “In 2016, we had 45,527 voters go to the 63 polling places in Scott County, and in 2012, we had 46,621 voters. Numbers like that going to our polling places represents a huge opportunity for community spread of COVID-19,” Moritz said.
Moritz cited the success of absentee voting in the 2020 Primary Election in June as an example of how to help stop the spread of COVID-19. “In the June 2 Primary Election, 72.5% of voters cast absentee ballots in a record-breaking election. A big reason for this very successful election was Secretary of State Paul Pate mailing absentee-ballot requests to every active voter in Iowa.” Moritz said. In Scott County 24,371 voters cast ballots, with 17,668 casting their ballots absentee.
