Early voting begins

Early voting kicked off Tuesday, with local residents invited to apply for an early voting ballot leading up to the Nov. 8 general election. 
Mail-in ballots will be sent out Oct. 19, according to Jill DeMers, county clerk and election commissioner. 
On election day Nov. 8, Aurora will be having polling locations at the Bremer Community Center with Ward 1 voting in the Wortman Room, Ward 2 in West Room-North and Ward 3 in West Room-South. Precincts 7 will have a polling location at the Hordville Event Center and Precinct 8 will be in the Marquette Community Center. Precincts 1-6 will vote by mail-in ballot only.
“So we’re just setting up the booths today so everything’s ready to go,” DeMers said on Friday. “And (voters) can come in, fill out an application, and they can vote here in the office or they can take it home, vote, and then they can drop it off at the dropbox outside of the courthouse on the east side, or just bring it up (to the counter) or mail it.”
Mail-in ballots will be automatically sent out to precincts No. 1-6 and can be requested by those in other polling precincts. Ballots can be sent back to the Hamilton County Courthouse or dropped off in the dropbox near the handicap entrance. 
“Whatever works for them, okay, so have postage on them, so they can mail them back,” DeMers elaborated. 
She also spoke on what happens to ballots once deposited in the dropbox, which is situated in front a surveillance camera to prevent tampering. Two city employees check the box for ballots twice a day.
Once the mail-in ballot is received, it is date stamped and other security measures are taken to ensure identity. 
“Most important, I would say, (is to) check their signature,” DeMers said. “So each envelope, the voter has to sign and we check it with what we have. If it doesn’t match, we call them because we may have a signature from when they were 20 and just need an updated signature.”
Usually DeMers says it just takes a trip down to the courthouse to clear up the misunderstanding or update an out-of-date signature. 
DeMers also expressed faith in the election procedures as she views herself and election workers as fellow voters as well. She has said throughout her tenure that election procedures have been tweaked to ensure security.
“I feel like the Secretary of State’s office has been a step ahead,” she stated. “And we have had a lot of preparation. We’ve never had any problems here and ever since I’ve started, we’ve always been balanced. We’ve had to have everything right on with our office. So I’m confident of our process, of all of our checks and balances the Secretary of State has us do.”
Mail-in ballots can be requested until Oct. 19 and those requests cannot be postmarked past Oct. 21. The final date for voting registration will be Oct. 28 until 6 p.m. Early voting lasts until Nov. 7, right before election day, though DeMers said that all ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.