A look at precinct early voting numbers ahead of Election Day

QUARTER CITIES (KWQC) – Thousands of ballots have already been cast in precincts for the 2022 midterm elections.

About 24,000 early voting ballots had been collected in Scott as of Monday morning, according to Scott County Auditor Kerry Tompkins.

“We were expecting about twelve to thirteen thousand more ballots, so it’s a little bit lower than we thought, but hopefully we’ll get those numbers together tomorrow and people will come out,” Tompkins said. .

Tompkins said her office expects about 50 percent of voters to do so and expects about half of that 50 percent to vote early.

“We had COVID in 2020, so I think that changed for a lot of people. It was a good opportunity for people to have something different and have a different choice. I think a lot of people like it. .Whether you email it or drop it back, it still allows them to be able to send it from their home, and if they’re worried about it getting here on time, they can go and put it in. I I think Iowa is very “old school” so you have a lot of people who come out to vote on Election Day, but I think a lot more people see the convenience of absentee voting whether it’s by mail or comes early in person,” Tompkins said.

In Rock Island County, nearly 20,000 early voting ballots had been collected by Monday morning.

“In the mail, we had 14,358 applications and we had 12,434 applications returned to us, a total between the two [including satellite locations]19,951 and yes, we’re ahead of the numbers four years ago, not by much, maybe a couple of thousand,” said Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney.

Election officials in both provinces say they are ready and prepared for Election Day. They ask voters who show up in person on Election Day to bring ID, remember to register to vote, and be patient if there are long lines.

Both Iowa and Illinois allow residents to vote in person on Election Day. Polls in Illinois are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and in Iowa from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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