We never really left, but we're back

Happy Fiscal New Year's Eve, everyone.  These pages have been blank the last few months. We've been doing stuff, just not election stuff. After many months of effort by business, labor, and government, Johnson County's Community ID program is about to begin. Our first staff training was today. We hope to begin issuing IDs on July 13, pending additional training.



Design not final; height and weight not necessarily accurate.

Right now we're near the end of the longest stretch without an election in Johnson County since 1986-87. The school board vote on September 8, will be 10 months after the November 2014 general election.

Filing for the school board election starts next Monday, July 6 at school district offices. Find out more about the requirements and dates here.

Before that real election, we'll be having our annual mock election at the Johnson County Fair July 27-30. We'll have both a political contest and a fun contest this year.

Filing for the November 3 city election starts August 10 in Iowa City and University Heights, and August 24 in other cities. A change this year: city candidates file the paperwork with our office now, rather than at city offices.

And we hear that there's this caucus thing going on, but we don't do that, the political parties do. But we're always happy to answer FAQs.

Election Day Liveblog!

8:13 PM: Our data runners are getting instructions on picking up and returning our results cards. Won't be long...  From this point on most of the action will be on our Official site jcauditor.com and on Twitter. 

7:15 Last absentee stats update before polls close; 26870 ballots returned  http://www.johnson-county.com/dept_auditor.aspx?id=16018 not counting two a guy just brought in.

6:50 PM: 20,483 voters at 6 PM. That's 23% turnout, not counting all the absentees. Next update: when we close! We've had 378 provisional ballots as of 6 - already more than the 267 total we had in 2010.

6:25 PM: Reminder that polls are open till 9, and if you're in line by nine (see what we did there) you can vote.

4: 34 PM: Running more provisional ballot materials out to precincts.More than double 2010. Again, mostly people with unreturned mailed ballots.


4:25 PM: The Iowa City Cable guys have been here. We'll be ready to go on Channel 5 at 9 PM. Also, check our main website jcauditor.com for detailed results.

3:30 PM: At our 3 PM turnout update we had 12,723, down from 12,974 in 2010. Numbers are down from 2010 in Iowa City and Coralville, but up in Tiffin and WAY up, almost double, in North Liberty.

Our next update is at 6 PM. We won't have a direct 6:00 comparison to 2010, because we used to do our last update at 8 PM.

1:53 PM: Sending more ballots out to about half our precincts, just to be on the safe side. We thought  heavy early voting would cut into Election Day, but doesn't look like it has so far. Maybe we won't hit that milestone of more early votes than Election Day votes after all.

12:53 PM: After today's mail we still have 3412 mailed ballots not back. (Some of those folks are among our provisional voters.) We have more coming across the counter. Bring them here, or turn them in unvoted at the polls.

11:40 AM: Our 11 AM call in is done with 7123 voters, up from 6800 in 2010. Turnout almost exactly even in Iowa City, up in North Liberty, and down slightly in Coralville; we think heavy early voting has cut into Coralville. We had three really good satellite days at teh Coralville Library.

We are seeing a lot more provisional ballots: 96 so far today vs. just 36 same time in 2010. Most of those are people who lost or didn't get their mailed ballots. After today we double-check and make sure the mailed ballot didn't get here and get counted, then we consider the provisional ballots Thursday. If the mailed ballot didn't come back, they will likely count.

10:20 AM: Taking a closer look at our 9 AM turnout, we've got several places where turout is running above predictions:

Iowa City 1, 8, 17, 18 and 24
Coralville 3, 6, and 7
North Liberty 2, 4, 6
Big Grove, Cedar, Clear Creek/Tiffin, Hardin, Jefferson East/Shueyville, Newport, Oxford, Solon, and Union.

We'll watch those spots closely at the 11:00 check-in, and send more resources as needed.

10:10 AM: Busy answering questions so slow on the update. 9 AM turnout was 3950, up from 3426 in 2010. We saw increases in Iowa City and North Liberty, while Coralville was about even.

8:50 AM:  Getting ready for our first turnout update at 9. Look here. For comparison, look at 2010 turnout. Fair warning: The comparison works well for grand total and for cities, but within cities preccinct lines have changed.

With over 26,000 absentee ballots turned in, we're predicting this will be our first governor year election with more early votes than election day. But prove us wrong and go vote!

7:42 AM: Getting a late start on our notes for the day. We always get lots of calls from our workers early in the morning, but everybody's voting.

We had a busy day at our office yesterday with 693 voters. There' no voting at the office today, you have to go to your polling place. Look it up here (maps) or here (text) or view a list. Polls open 7 AM to 9 PM.

We've dug through our web site pretty deep, but with thousand of pages there may be some references to old polling places. Also, we hear than an old polling place lookup page that we no longer maintain is showing up on Google searches. We're working on taking have taken that down.

Vote Early Earlier

Because voter traffic is increasing at our office and at satellite voting sites, we encourage Johnson County voters to cast their early ballots earlier, rather than waiting till the last minute.

The only early voting site on Monday, November 3 will be our office. In the 2012 presidential election, we had over 1300 voters at the office, which meant parking problems and longer waits.

To avoid the lines, a good day to vote would be this Saturday, either at the Iowa City Public Library from 10 to 6 or at our office from 9 to 5. (Yes, we know the Hawks are playing Saturday.) While we had 109 voters at the office last Saturday, that’s a lot less than the 350 to 400 a day we’re seeing on weekdays.

The full remaining early voting schedule is below. Voters should check sites and times. One recent campaign mailing listed incorrect times for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics sites.

Johnson County Auditor's Office
913 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City
Wednesday, October 29-Friday, October 31 7:45 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.
Saturday, November 1, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Monday, November 3, 7:45 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.

University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
200 Hawkins Dr., Iowa City
Wednesday, October 29, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Iowa City Public Library
123 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA
Wednesday, October 29-Friday, October 31, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Saturday, November 1, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sunday, November 2, noon – 5 p.m.

Coralville Public Library
1401 5th St., Coralville
Thursday, October 30, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Sunday, November 2, noon - 4 p.m.

Republican Poll Workers Needed

The Johnson County Auditor’s Office needs registered Republicans ready and able to work as precinct officials for Election Day.

State law requires auditors to balance poll workers equally, or very close to equally, between the two full-status political parties, Democrats and Republicans. Balancing our workforce evenly in a county that leans strongly to one party is an ongoing challenge for our office.

Pay is $10.50 an hour, with time and a half after eight hours a day. You must be a registered voter in Johnson County to work.  

The work day starts at 6 AM on Tuesday, November 4, and concludes at roughly 10 PM, making full day pay just over $200. There may be limited opportunities for half day work. Your chances of being hired will increase if you are willing to work outside your own precinct and if you are comfortable working with computers.

Republican workers are needed for the following locations:

Swisher – 1 or 2
Shueyville – 1 or 2
Solon City Hall – 1 or 2
Newport – 1
North Liberty:
          Garner Elementary – 2 or 3
          South Slope – 3 or 4
          North Central Jr High – 1
Iowa City:
          Quad Residence Hall – 1 or 2
          UI Art Bldg West - 2
          UI Main Library – 5
          UI Athletic Hall of Fame – 1
          IC Transit Bldg – 2
          Mark Twain Elementary – 2
          Longfellow Elementary – 3 or 4
          IC Rec Center – 4
          IC Senior Center – 4
          Mann Elementary – 4
          Shimek Elementary – 1
          Regina – 3 or 4
 
Workers will also need to attend one training session. These will be held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October 28, 29 and 30 at 5:30 PM at Montgomery Hall at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.

We also need four additional Republican workers for the Absentee Board. This is a two day job beginning Monday, November 3 at 8 AM. Training for the Absentee Board is Monday. October 27 at either noon or 6 PM at our office.

Potential workers should apply at our office at 913 S. Dubuque St. in Iowa City between 7:45 and 5:30 weekdays, or on Saturday, October 25 from 8 to 5. For the hiring process you will need identification: either a driver’s license and original Social Security card, or a valid passport.

Democrats, independents, and third party voters may also apply, but are not likely to be needed for this election as those positions are already filled.

Registration DOWN?!? Blame Elvis.

We've got some unusual statistics for 17 days before an election: Active voter registration in Johnson County is actually DOWN over the last two weeks. But there's a reason for it and there's still time to fix problems.

Recently we sent new voter cards to five precincts which have new polling places. Any time we do a large mailing, some of the cards are returned to sender.



We should have sent it Special D.

When official election mail is returned as undeliverable, the Motor Voter law (1993) requires us to place that voter on inactive status, a preliminary step to cancellation. Inactive voters need to re-register to return to active status and vote.

Since October 4, during the stretch when cards were getting returned to sender, active voter registration in the county has dropped from 89,545 to 89,065, a loss of 480. (More voters than that have been inactivated, but losses are getting offset by new registrations). That's unusually high, because one of the precincts that's moved is Iowa City 11, a high turnover, student heavy part of downtown. Active registration in precinct 11 has dropped by 437 voters in the last two weeks. Many of these voters have probably graduated and moved away, but many others have simply moved to a new apartment.

Voters can check their registration status at the Secretary of State's web site. If your registration is inactive, this will appear near the top of the page:

Your current registration status is inactive. On election day, you will need to show identification at the polling place, such as a current and valid photo ID. 

You can avoid problems if you update your registration this week before the pre-registration deadline, Saturday October 25 at 5 p.m.

We expect the downward trend in registration to end next week with a stepped up satellite voting schedule. Voting is available Monday through Friday 11 to 5 at the Old Capitol Center, and from 7:45 to 5:30 at our office.

People Are Asking: Local Option Sales Tax Insert with Mailed Ballots

Our office is receiving inquiries about an insert mailed with absentee ballots which includes local option sales tax language.

For the five contiguous cities voting as a unit on the ballot measure - Coralville, Iowa City, North Liberty, Tiffin and University Heights - the full text of the ballot measure was too long to include on the ballot. For these five cities, only a summary of the measure is included on the ballot. The full text of the measure is included on a half-sheet insert labeled NOTICE.

Voters in the five contiguous cities should read this language before marking their ballots. The NOTICE insert is not a ballot, and does not need to be marked or returned.

The NOTICE insert is included with all mailed ballots. Voters who live in Hills, Lone Tree, Oxford, Shueyville, Solon, Swisher, West Branch and unincorporated Johnson County will see the full text of their sales tax issue on their ballots, and may ignore the insert.

Status of mailed absentee ballots

Johnson County has experienced some delays in the delivery of mailed absentee ballots. Ballots are on the way to voters and should be delivered this week. Some voters have reported receiving ballots in the mail today.

Due to concerns about ballot delivery during the 2012 presidential election, our office is using a new service provided by our ballot printer to mail and track ballots. We expect this system will save significant expense and staff time as the election continues. However, making sure it is working properly had meant some delay in the beginning of the mailed ballot program.

In the future, we hope to expand this program to allow voters to track the progress of their own mailed ballots. For now, we encourage voters to be patient through the first part of this week. Voter with specific concerns, such as travel plans, should contact our office.