Polk County Auditor’s Office and three public libraries will be open for early voting on Saturday

The Polk County Auditor’s Office (120 2nd Ave, Suite A) will be open for early voting in the June 7 primary election on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m There will also be three satellite voting locations on Saturday. All three will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• Altoona Public Library (700 8th St SW)

• Urbandale Public Library (3520 86th St)

• West Des Moines Public Library (4000 Mills Civic Pkwy)

Voters will need to bring ID in order to cast a ballot. In addition to a current Iowa driver’s license, the following forms of ID can be used.

• Iowa Non-Operator ID

• Iowa Voter Identification Card

• U.S. Military ID or Veteran ID

• U.S. Passport

• Tribal ID Card/Document

If a voter doesn’t have one of the acceptable forms of ID, another registered voter who does can attest to the ID-less voter’s identity. The voter without ID can then cast a provisional ballot.

Unlike a general election, or primaries for city-level offices or school boards, the June 7 election is a partisan primary. Only voters registered as Democrats or Republicans can vote, and they will receive ballots listed just the candidates from their party. People who are registered, or who are registered No Party, can change to Democrat or Republican if they vote in person on Election Day because of same-day registration, but it’s too late to re-register in order to vote early.

As of Thursday, there were still 1,584 absentee ballots mailed to voters that had not been returned to the auditor’s office, according to Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald. Because of 2021 state law cutting the amount of time available to those who want to vote by mail, all absentee ballots must be received by the auditor’s office by the time the polls close on Tuesday. Chances a mailed ballot will arrive in time are growing slimmer, but there are two options for anyone who still has absentee ballot at home.

First, you can still vote in person, but you must bring your absentee ballot with you and give it to an election worker before voting. Alternatively, you can put the completed absentee ballot in the auditor offices’ dropbox.

In Polk County, the dropbox is a slot in the wall outside the auditor’s office for voters to deposit ballots. To be counted, an absentee ballot must be in the dropbox by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

The auditor’s office will also be open for early in-person voting on Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.