Voters cast ballots under twinkling lights near the bar at Carper Vineyard and Winery near Norwalk on Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Kathie Obradovich/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Most Iowans vote in churches, community centers, libraries and the like. But Iowans in two central-Iowa precincts got to cast their ballots in slightly more festive surroundings: wineries.
“I think it’s quirky and fun,” said Dani Wolf, who works at the Summerset Winery in rural Indianola, the site of Warren County’s Lincoln #3 polling place.
Voters drive past a dormant vineyard and walk past the tasting room bar and gift shop to get to the polling place, in a large event space in the back of the building. Behind the voting screens, two wine barrels form a table with a refrigerated tapper behind it.
No one was drinking mid-afternoon on Tuesday — and no one was voting, either.