Early Voting Up Despite Shortened Window

Despite a reduced time frame, Iowans are casting more early votes.State data shows a shortened early voting period adopted by the GOP-controlled Legislature has not stunted early voting, even as a group announced last week its plan to challenge the voter law in court.Driven by a surge in early ballots submitted by Iowa Democrats, the number of early votes for the state’s primary election this year has increased by more than 35 percent over the previous non-presidential primary election, in 2014.One week out from Tuesday’s Election Day, 28,341 early ballots had been submitted or completed in-person by voters, according to data from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office.That’s 35.5 percent more than the number of early votes submitted one week out from the 2014 primary election.That increase has occurred despite early voting starting more than a week later this year under recent changes made to the state’s elections laws.The early voting period in the 2014 primary was between April 24 and June 2, which is 40 days or more than five weeks.The early voting period in the 2018 primary runs from May 7 through Monday.