Important changes regarding absentee voting

October 4, 2021

Melissa Eilander, Poweshiek County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections informs voters of recent legislative changes affecting absentee voting. If you plan to vote absentee, please take special note to the following:

• The first day absentee ballots may be mailed to voters requesting is October 13. It is also the first day to vote absentee in-person at the County Auditor’s Office. Eligible voters may vote in person at the County Auditor’s Office until November 1 at 5:00 p.m.
   
• Requests for absentee ballots by mail must be received by the County Auditor by 5:00 p.m. on October 18. County Auditor’s may not mail absentee ballots after this deadline.
   
• All voted absentee ballots must be received by the County Auditor by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 2. Postmarks or bar codes printed on ballot envelopes will no longer make a ballot received after Election Day valid except ballots from participants in the Safe at Home program received by the Secretary of State in time to be transmitted to the County Auditor by Noon on the Monday following the election and ballots from uniformed and oversees citizens received by Noon on the Monday following the election.
   
• Absentee ballot request forms must include the date the request is signed. The request form may not be sent to a voter by the County Auditor unless a voter requests a form. The individual requesting the absentee request form from the County Auditor, cannot make a request on behalf of another individual. Absentee ballot request forms may be sent to voters by candidates, political groups, and other private organizations, but no fields on the request form may be prefilled except for the type and date of election.
   
• The only person who may return a voted absentee ballot to the County Auditor’s Office other than the voter is someone living in the voter’s household, an immediate family member (4th degree of consanguinity & affinity), the special precinct election officials who deliver a ballot to the resident of a health care facility, or a delivery agent (must be registered voter & cannot be the voter’s employer or an agent of the employer, an officer or agent of the voter’s union, or an actual or implied agent for a political party, candidate or committee), if a voter is unable to return a ballot due to a blindness or other disability. There are certain rules relating to delivery agents so if this is your situation, please contact the County Auditor’s Office for detailed information. Someone who returns an absentee ballot who is not allowed to, or someone who lies about it, commits a serious misdemeanor.