The popularity of mail-in voting really picked up during the pandemic and it’s a critical component of the get-out-and-vote work done by the parties now.
“Absentee ballots are very important because a lot of people, either they work or they or they have trouble getting out on election day,” said Kay Pence, chair of the Scott County Democrats. “So it’s always been a way to expand the vote and make voting more accessible to people.”
“We do expect a lot of absentee voting,” said Jeanita McNulty, chair of the Scott County Republicans. “It has been really pushed by the party, from the national level on down. We know people know how it saves the party money, they don’t have to do any ballot chasing, they know those votes are in so they can move on to other voters.”
So that’s why voters have been bombarded in some cases with applications for absentee, leading to confusion for some.
“We had one voter who reached out an said he had seven forms sent to him,” said Kerri Tompkins, Scott County auditor. “One was us, and the rest obviously were different. So yes, you can get those forms, we have people that call us and say ‘I already filled it out do I need to do it again?’ No.”