(Radio Iowa) – Today (Tuesday) is National Voter Registration Day and Secretary of State Paul Pate has a check list. “If you’ve already registered, is it up to date? Is it the right address? Do you know where your polling location is?” Pate says. “But for those folks who have moved this a chance for them to get it updated and, of course, there are still a few folks out there who haven’t registered.” Pate says a national day dedicated to this issue is a little like civics 101.

“It is to instill some civic pride and to get people thinking about what the mechanics are of an election so that they’re successful,” Pate says. “We want you to know the deadlines. We want you to know where you vote at. Know you have options, you know, if you want to vote by mail, if you want to vote early at the courthouse, whether you want to vote in person — you need to know what those are.”

The period for REQUESTING an absentee ballot is underway. October 16th is the first day election officials can mail absentee ballots to voters. October 16th is also the first day Iowans can vote in person at their county auditor’s office. There was a delay in printing ballots in Iowa’s first, third and fourth congressional districts this year — until the Iowa Supreme Court issued its ruling last Wednesday that Libertarian candidates in those districts had not qualified to be listed on ballots. Saturday, September 15th was the federal deadline for mailing ballots to Iowans in the military who’re serving out of state or to Iowa residents living overseas and Pate says county election officials met that deadline.

“They were prepared because we kept them informed and we also made sure they had almost all the other pieces,” Pate says, “so once we got the last one resolved they could just fit it in and away they went.”

More than two-point-two MILLION Iowans are registered to vote. About 40 percent of them did not vote in the 2022 election.