Johnson County Auditor says mass mailing of absentee ballot requests could be labor intensive

Hunter
04/02/20
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s plan to send an absentee voter request to every registered voter is causing concerns for county auditors, who say the labor and postage cost may be prohibitive.
The Press Citizen reports that Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert says that voters would send the postage-paid request to their respective county’s Auditors Office, who in turn would mail them a ballot. They would then have to put the completed ballots in storage until election night, when they would be counted.
Voter turnout for a typical primary is usually between 7 and 10 percent, and with 110,000-plus registered voters in Johnson County, Weipert says that would involve a lot of labor to stuff and mail those ballots out. It’s also possible that with absentee ballot requests going to everyone registered, voter participation could actually be higher.
The Secretary of State’s Office said that more details will be released on the plan soon. Those details may include covering postage costs and some of the additional labor.