(Radio Iowa) – Two of Iowa’s top election officials say the window for receiving and then returning an absentee ballot is very narrow and mailing the ballot back may not be the best option. Adams County Auditor Becky Bissell is president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors. Bissell says after she drops a ballot off at the Post Office, it takes between five to seven days before it’s delivered to a voter if they live in rural areas of her county.

“We have a 20 day window from when we can mail out the ballots. Three of those days the Postal Service doesn’t deliver mail,” Bissell says. “If it takes seven days for the ballot to get to them, they essentially have three days to get that ballot voted and back to us and that’s a pretty small window.” Iowans are able to fill out a form and REQUEST an absentee ballot today, but October 16th is the first day county auditors can start mailing out the ballots. Bissell says voters have other options once they get the absentee ballot — like hand delivering it to their local county auditor’s office.

“They can put it into an election drop box, if the county has one,” Bissell says. “In my county, they don’t have an election drop box, so===so if they can’t get out of the car, pull into a spot outside the courthouse, call my office and we’d be more than happy to come down and get that from the voter.” That’s an option in other counties, too, plus eligible Iowa voters can cast ballots at their county auditor’s office staring October 16th.

Secretary of State Paul Pate says voters who want to vote-by-mail can track their ballot online at www.voterready.iowa.gov. “You can see: ‘Did the county courthouse get my request for an absentee ballot? It shows you the date. It’ll show you the date that the courthouse mailed it out to you. It’ll show you the date they received it back and if at any point here you see your ballot’s not getting there, go to plan B,” Pate says. “And Plan B will be either to come down to the courthouse ad vote or go to a traditional polling location.” Pate and Bissell made their comments this weekend during an appearance on Iowa Press at Iowa P-B-S.

“My office and so have the county auditors have had some serious discussions with the legislature about looking at the timetable on the early voting/absentee ballot scenario and I’m sure we’ll be having more of those,” Pate says. “…There are just some administrative things that we may need a little more room to adjust for.”

Earlier this month state and local election officials around the country issued a statement warning delayed delivery of ballots by the U-S Postal Service could lead to fewer people voting and a loss of trust in the electoral system.