(Radio Iowa/KJAN) With less than two weeks until the polls close on Election Day, the pace of EARLY voting in Iowa is way ahead previous records. More than 827-thousand Iowans asked for an absentee ballot so they could vote early either in-person at their county auditor’s office or by mail. The Iowa Secretary of State’s website shows nearly 571-thousand Iowans have already voted. Fifty-three percent of them are Democrats, 30 percent are Republicans and the remaining 16 percent are registered as “no party” or independent voters.

The latest voter REGISTRATION data shows there are about 13-thousand more registered Republicans than Democrats in Iowa. For the past few decades, independent voters had been the largest voting block in Iowa, but they’ve been surpassed this year by voters aligning with the two major parties. The Cass County Auditor’s Office, Tuesday, reported they still have 639 ballots that were mailed out that need to be returned. Remember the postage is already paid, you can drop it in the mail or you can walk them into Auditor’s office.

Officials say also, Saturday October 24th is the last day to request a ballot be mailed to you. The Cass County Auditor’s Office is open this Saturday October 24th from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for you to come in and vote. They said also “We have broken our 2016 record and currently have over 3000 ballots!!”