(Radio Iowa) – Two-hundred thousand Iowans have already cast votes in this year’s General Election. The latest information on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website indicates county auditors have issued 273-thousand absentee ballots and 73 percent of those ballots have been returned. Here’s the party breakdown so far: about 55 percent of the early votes are from Democrats, 31 percent are from Republicans and most of the rest are from independents who list “no party” on their voter registration.

Fifty-two percent of the “early votes” so far were either cast in person at a county auditor’s office or satellite voting site — or voters used a designated drop box for their absentee ballot.  A little less than half of the early votes already cast in Iowa’s 2022 General Election were delivered to county auditors’ offices through the U.S. Mail. Iowa law now requires absentee ballots to be inside your county auditor’s office by 8 p.m. next Tuesday. Election officials say the window for mailing ballots is closing. Jennifer Garms is president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.

“Once again, I would just recommend that if you have the opportunity to bring it into the office, to do that route,” she says. Postmarks and postal bar codes showing you mailed a ballot before election day NO LONGER APPLY. Voters can check online at www.voterready.iowa.gov, to see if their ballot has been received.

In-person early voting at county auditors’ offices and some satellite voting locations continues through November 7th.