OSKALOOSA — The Mahaska County Auditor’s Office has been fielding concerns from voters who have received multiple absentee ballot request forms in the mail. Not to worry, says Auditor Teri Rogers. Careful recordkeeping will assure that voters vote only once in a given election. 

“Political parties and other organizations are permitted to send mass mailings of request forms to voters, but my office is not,” Rogers explains. “Sometimes voters are confused  by receiving multiple request forms, but with our online recordkeeping it’s easy for us to determine if someone inadvertently completed and mailed us more that one of these requests. We will only send out one ballot per voter.” 

The auditor’s office will start to mail ballots to voters who have filed requests on October 16. That is also the day that voters can begin to cast absentee ballots in person at the  courthouse at 106 South 1st Street in Oskaloosa. 

Requests for mailed ballots must be in the auditor’s office by 5:00 pm on October 21. No ballots will be mailed for requests received after that date. Early voting at the  courthouse, however, will continue through Monday, November 4, the day before the election, including Saturday, November 2 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. 

Ballots returned by mail must be in the auditor’s office by 8:00 pm on Election Day, November 5, in order to be counted. 

If you haven’t received one of the flurry of ballot request forms in the mail but would like to vote absentee, you can download a form from the Iowa Secretary of State’s website  at https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/pdf/absenteeballotapp.pdf, or you may call the Mahaska County Auditor’s Office at 641-673-7148 to ask for one to be sent to you.