Clinton County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Eric Van Lancker is encouraging those wishing to vote in the June 2 Primary Election to vote absentee by mail due to the recent concerns with coronavirus and COVID-19.
“I am respectfully asking our voters to vote absentee by mail for the June Primary Election after meeting with public health officials, other county auditors around Iowa and with staff from the Secretary of State’s office,” Van Lancker said. “We are making this push for the safety of our voters and polling location workers.”
Van Lancker said polling locations will be open for voting on June 2, however he anticipates many will be combined creating fewer polling locations than normal for a Primary Election.
“We aren’t sure what this situation will be when Election Day gets here,” Van Lancker explained. “We hope all of our precinct election officials will be able to work that day, but we just don’t know at this point so we will reduce the number of polling locations that we will need to staff.”
Van Lancker said it has not yet been determined which polling locations will be combined. He said that will be announced soon.
Absentee ballots must be requested in writing. Forms are available on the Clinton County Web site at https://www.clintoncountyelections.com/vote/absentee/. Absentee ballot requests may also be obtained by calling the Clinton County Auditor’s Office and requesting one be sent. The Clinton County Auditor’s Office phone number is 563-244-0568. Requests may be submitted now.
Absentee requests to vote by mail must be received in the Auditor’s Office by 5 p.m. May 22.
Voters are reminded that for the Primary Election they must choose a political party on the request form in order to receive the correct ballot.
Absentee voters are also reminded they will need to provide a personal identification number (PIN) when voting absentee either in person or by mail. That PIN will most likely be your Iowa driver’s license number or your Iowa non-operator’s ID number. If a voter does not have either of those, the voter should have been sent a PIN in December from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office.
For more information about the 2020 Primary Election follow Clinton County Election Facebook and Twitter posts.
