Iowa officials say early turnout keeping poll workers busy

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By The Associated Press | Tuesday, November 7, 2006 7:29 PM CST | () comments

TODAY: (Updated 7:28 p.m.) DES MOINES, Iowa — By early this evening, state election officials said voter turnout was poised to match or surpass the last midterm election when more than 1 million Iowans cast a ballot.

``From what we're hearing, we're going to be right on track with 2002,'' said Charlie Krogmeier, first deputy secretary of state.

Voters were heading to the polls to elect a new governor and other statewide officials. All five of Iowa's congressional seats were on the ballot, and control of the narrowly divided Legislature was at stake.

Some county election officials were predicting a much higher turnout than in 2002. They said lines formed at polling sites beginning in the early morning hours.

``I went to my precinct about 7:15 a.m. and there were lines,'' said Scott County Auditor Karen Fitzsimmons. ``From what I'm hearing, that was the case this morning everywhere, and our phones rang incessantly.''

Scott County officials projected turnout would top 50 percent by the time polls close at 9 p.m. In 2002, turnout was 47.5 percent.

Vicki Ritz, deputy commissioner of elections in Woodbury County, said the polls there were busy.

``We've had several calls for more booths ... we've added booths to the sites to accommodate that,'' Ritz said.

By early evening, Pottawattamie County Auditor Marilyn Jo Drake said her office was having trouble keeping up with information requests from the county's polling places.

``Every polling place we've talked to says they are overwhelmed with how strong turnout has been,'' Drake said, adding that she expects turnout to reach at least 50 percent, up from 46 percent in 2002.

Larry Hawkins, 62, a small business owner from Des Moines, said he thinks people's desire for change would drive up turnout at the polls.

``This election is about the integrity of one party over another,'' he said as he left a polling site at a local school. ``There needs to be change in public policy on issues like the war in Iraq, health care and education. I think one party over another can take care of them better than the other.''

Stacy Medd, 41, an eastern Iowa teacher, said she was ``more interested in the results tonight than in past midterm elections.''

``I'm hoping when I wake up tomorrow, I'll feel better about the direction the country will be going in,'' she said outside a polling place at an Iowa City elementary school.

Some county auditors said this year's numbers wouldn't climb significantly higher than 2002. Linn County Auditor Linda Langenberg said she had predicted turnout would be 57 percent but didn't know by early evening if turnout would reach that mark.

``Maybe more like 50 percent, including absentee ballots, although it feels like more than that,'' she said.

Still, 33,049 voters, or about 24 percent of Linn County's eligible voters, had turned out by 3 p.m., above the 29,000 ballots, or 21 percent at the same time of day in 2002.

In Polk County, the workers at the auditor's office said early this evening that they were still crunching turnout numbers.

County election officials said no major problems with voting machines were reported.

A clock on an electronic voting machine did not work at one precinct in Pottawattamie County, but Drake said it was replaced by a new machine and there were no other problems.

``We have a representative from the machine company here just in case, but we've had nothing for them,'' Drake said.

The county experienced problems with voting machines in the June primary, delaying the outcome of voting for two days as ballots were counted by hand.

Krogmeier said minor glitches also were reported in Polk, Butler and Guthrie counties.

``There hasn't been anything significant, nothing that is causing a ballot to be destroyed or a person's vote not counted,'' he said.

Lynell Wagenman, 20, a Drake University student, said she was voting in her first gubernatorial election ``to take a new direction in our country.

``It's great to see there's this much excitement this year,'' she said of heavy turnout this morning. ``Usually you see this for a presidential election, not a midterm election.''