DES MOINES, Iowa — Election security is top of mind across Iowa, and making sure your ballot is secure until Election Day is a simple process.
Absentee ballots, mail-in voting and early voting ballots are all stored in a safe spot in the local county auditor's office until Monday, Nov. 4th. On Monday, election workers begin opening the ballots, but all will officially be counted by machine on Election Day.
"When you cast your ballot, either early by mail, in person, at a satellite, those ballots are held in a secure location in your county auditor's office," said Jamie Fitzgerald, Polk County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections. "They can't be opened until the day before the election. In Polk County we're going to have 80 of your friends and neighbors, both parties coming to open those ballots."
Fitzgerald says all votes will be officially counted with results known by 10 p.m. Election Day, Nov. 5. Iowans will not know any early voting or mail-in voting results prior to Election Day.
"You want to make sure you get these results counted, accurately counted," Fitzgerald said. "So, a number of counties will start on Monday before the election with this bipartisan team, and then they all have to be counted that are received by election night."
Fitzgerald added that the only votes to be counted on a different day would be provisional ballots, but those are in very small numbers.
All votes are counted by machine, but a precinct and two races are selected to be counted by hand to ensure accuracy.
"That's the number one key, is make sure that you know your vote is secure and accurate," Fitzgerald said. "In Iowa, we vote on paper. Every vote is on paper. So, when you start talking about hacking and doing stuff like this, it's hard to hack paper, because it's paper."
The deadline to request an absentee ballot or mail-in ballot is Oct. 21st at 5 p.m.
The full guide to elections can be found at Iowa's Voter Ready website.