With COVID-19 shutting down much of Iowa, the primary elections for June 2 are still scheduled.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate spoke with Local 5 about the absentee ballot request forms being mailed out to all registered, active voters in the state.
Local 5: Your office is sending absentee ballot request forms to every active, registered voter. When will they get there and why this big push?
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate: You should be able to start looking in your mailbox this coming Monday, and you'll be looking for something like this. It'll be nice and colorful.
It talks about Vote Safe Iowa, coming from the Secretary of State's office. It's a tri-fold piece and it's a real simple form to fill out and use prepaid postage, drop in the mail back and they'll mail you a ballot right to your house.
Local 5: Sounds super convenient, great way to get things done.
Your office has also expanded, as we understand, the absentee voting period for the June primary ... because of coronavirus.
What are you planning and hoping to see at the polls come June?
Pate: Well, I'm hoping Iowans will be listening closely and choose to vote absentee this time out. We want you to be safe, and we want you to have the opportunity to vote. We also want to make sure our election poll workers are safe. And we're going this approach because I think that's the best one for you.
Local 5: Obviously, the last thing that the state wants to see is any kind of drop-off in voter participation. It's the ultimate goal here: keep people safe, and find the easiest way possible for them to vote, right?
Pate: Most certainly ... People have already started requesting absentee ballots. They're literally more than double what they were in 2016—the last presidential election—right now.
Local 5: Is it inevitable that there will be some drop-off in the total number of votes that are cast in this primary maybe, compared to the last comparable time period?
Or is that not something you're even willing to to concede at this point?
Pate: It's a little early for us to predict that one. I'd say give us a couple weeks and we'll have a better indicator. Primaries tend to be low turnout because we have caucuses. So most folks think, 'Oh, we chose our presidential candidate. I don't need to vote again.' Well, you do.
There are many local primaries and congressional primaries across the state still, so we want to make sure they have that opportunity to vote safe.