Early voting for the Sept. 4 primary in the Iowa City Council special election began on Wednesday, and voters will be able to cast an in-person vote at the Johnson County Auditor’s office through Friday, Aug. 31.
Requests for mail-in absentee ballots for the five-candidate primary must be received by the Auditor’s office no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 24. The already short time available to return ballots by mail will be cut even further, because of a federal holiday. Completed mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Saturday, Sept. 1, because government offices will be closed on Monday, Sept. 3, for Labor Day.
Earlier this month, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a temporary injunction preventing parts of the state’s 2017 Voter ID law affecting absentee ballots from being enforced. “According to the ruling, voters are no longer required to list driver’s license numbers, non-operator ID numbers or the voter PIN on requests for absentee ballots,” the Auditor’s office explained in an email.
