(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office reported this morning that over 675,000 Iowans cast ballots during Iowa’s early voting period, which ended Monday night. “The numbers are definitely strong,” Pate said. “They’re up significantly from 2016.”

Early voting soared in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic and 2016 is the latest comparable presidential election year. “That’s to me a good indicator that there’s a lot of strong interest from the voters,” Pate said, “and they’re making sure their voice gets heard.”

The latest data shows Republicans had a statewide edge over Democrats in early voting of about 11,000 ballots, but in Iowa’s first, second and third congressional districts, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in early voting.

(Radio Iowa file photo)

Pate, who spoke with Radio Iowa shortly after noon, indicated turn-out today at precincts around the state had been strong. “It does appear that we’re going to have a pretty heavy voter turnout,” Pate said. “I don’t know if it will be a record, but I think it will definitely be one that the candidates have demonstrated they’ve put a lot of effort into.”

The biggest issue for voters today may be long lines. “We’ve had a few glitches here and there, but they’re all being resolved. The auditors have been pretty quick to get on top of it right away,” Pate said. “We just remind people we use paper ballots, so no matter what, the ballots are there.”

KCCI TV is reporting Story County election officials are having issues with the machines used to tabulate paper ballots in some precincts in the county. Voters in those Story County polling locations are being asked to leave their ballots in a secure box and election observers from both political parties will watch as those ballots are tabulated later.