Early Voting Satellite Location Opens in Urbandale

Urbandale residents looking to take advantage of early voting no longer have to drive to the Polk County election office in downtown Des Moines.

Early voting opened today at the Urbandale Public Library. The satellite voting location will remain open until Oct. 27.

The Urbandale Public Library location early voting hours:

• 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday - Thursdays
• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays
• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27

Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald is ramping up staffing levels Thursday, the first day of early voting in Iowa, the first of the battleground states to cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election.

Early voting at the downtown auditor's office continues through Nov. 5.

Early voting is important in Iowa. As of Monday, registered Democrats had requested 109,709 absentee ballots in Iowa, while Republicans had requested only a fraction of that number – 20,548.

Recent polls put Romney behind in Iowa by as much as five or six points, longtime Iowa GOP fundraiser and activist Becky Beach told Real Clear Politics, but she thinks Republican gains in voter registration may help offset that.

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Early voting has always been “a strong Democrat process,” she said  “It doesn’t worry me that they have an advantage, as we have made some real gains in voter registration this year.”

As of Sept. 4, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats, 620,868 to 602,636, but registered voters who did not declare a party outnumber both with 666,279 voters.

While Democrats have been pushing early voting throughout the summer, the Romney campaign waited to make its push until the ballots actually became available. Real Clear Politics said the first of 10 scheduled mailings on early-voting information will hit Republicans’ mailboxes this week.

In Polk County, Fitzgerald said, absentee ballot requests are about double what they were in 2008.

Fitzgerald said that by the end of this week or before, his office will have firmed up the 11 Polk County satellite locations, where voting will begin on Oct. 8. Campaigns, individuals and others have petitioned for another dozen satellite locations that will be open on Saturdays to be determined, Fitzgerald said.

One change this year will be that a registered voter in Polk County may vote at any satellite location, regardless of whether it is in the person’s city of residence, a change that is designed to boost voter participation in the Nov. 6 election.

The Urbandale Public Library is scheduled to serve as a satellite voting location.

Hours for in-person voting in the Election Office, located at 120 Second Ave., Suite, A, Des Moines, are:

• Monday-Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 27: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 3: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.