Early voting has begun in Iowa and will be critical for Democratic prospects to improve on the last two midterm elections. I will update this page every weekday with the latest absentee ballot numbers released by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office, presented in two tables.

The first shows the number of absentee ballots Iowans have requested, in each of the four Congressional districts and statewide. The second shows the number of absentee ballots county auditors have received from voters, in each Congressional district and statewide. (For now, those numbers are small, because county auditors only just started mailing ballots to voters who don’t live overseas or serve in the military.)

When an Iowan votes early in person, either at a county auditor’s office or at a satellite location, that counts as a ballot requested by the voter and as a ballot received by the auditor on the same day.

You can compare this year’s numbers to daily charts from the last three election cycles by clicking through to Bleeding Heartland’s archive of absentee ballot totals from 2012, 2014, and 2016.

Iowa Democrats traditionally rely more on early voters than do Republicans, and the tables below show that as of October 9, registered Democrats had requested about four times as many absentee ballots as Republicans had. Remember, an early vote lead does not guarantee victory for any of a party’s nominees. Hillary Clinton received about 60,000 more votes than Donald Trump did among Iowans who cast ballots before November 8, 2016. But Trump outpolled Clinton on election day in Iowa by more than 200,000.

You can find the latest absentee ballot figures in each county or Iowa House or Iowa Senate district on the Secretary of State’s website. At this writing, Democrats have requested more absentee ballots in virtually every state legislative district. For analysis of the battleground races, see Josh Hughes’ Iowa House ratings and my review of Senate races likely to be competitive.

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of November 6, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	63,312	42,875	34,333	816	129	141,465
IA-02	70,889	46,965	32,032	557	128	150,571
IA-03	69,153	52,469	30,961	862	109	153,554
IA-04	45,044	57,337	27,896	597	97	130,971
statewide	248,398	199,646	125,222	2,832	463	576,561

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of November 6, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	58,595	40,716	31,315	722	114	131,462
IA-02	66,559	45,023	29,903	509	117	142,111
IA-03	62,866	49,399	27,747	736	84	140,832
IA-04	42,274	54,823	25,913	540	88	123,638
statewide	230,294	189,961	114,878	2,507	403	538,043

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of November 5, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	61,548	41,635	32,972	790	121	137,066
IA-02	68,504	45,322	30,343	512	119	144,800
IA-03	67,969	51,269	30,007	838	104	150,187
IA-04	43,566	55,324	26,431	570	88	125,979
statewide	241,587	193,550	119,753	2,710	432	558,032

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of November 5, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	55,089	38,123	28,340	661	101	122,314
IA-02	62,497	42,024	27,082	448	99	132,150
IA-03	58,771	45,598	24,540	631	74	129,614
IA-04	39,306	50,209	22,931	488	73	113,007
statewide	215,663	175,954	102,893	2,228	347	497,085

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of November 2, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	59,039	40,095	31,218	765	116	131,233
IA-02	63,895	42,694	27,442	458	104	134,593
IA-03	65,869	49,692	28,719	810	101	145,191
IA-04	41,198	52,892	24,615	535	79	119,319
statewide	230,001	185,373	111,994	2,568	400	530,336

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of November 2, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	50,259	34,872	24,933	597	89	110,750
IA-02	55,242	37,654	22,795	374	79	116,144
IA-03	54,570	42,208	21,883	572	68	119,301
IA-04	35,398	45,543	19,829	428	61	101,259
statewide	195,469	160,277	89,440	1,971	297	447,454

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of November 1, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	58,047	39,408	30,554	746	113	128,868
IA-02	62,175	41,635	26,353	432	99	130,694
IA-03	64,360	48,593	27,961	793	98	141,805
IA-04	40,433	51,954	24,010	521	78	116,996
statewide	225,015	181,590	108,878	2,492	388	518,363

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of November 1, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	47,741	33,004	23,248	558	79	104,630
IA-02	52,422	35,608	21,028	340	73	109,471
IA-03	51,369	39,499	20,103	528	60	111,559
IA-04	33,360	43,007	18,354	393	59	95,173
statewide	184,892	151,118	82,733	1,819	271	420,833

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 31, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	57,221	38,819	30,049	741	111	126,941
IA-02	60,438	40,603	25,418	415	95	126,969
IA-03	63,013	47,690	27,336	766	98	138,903
IA-04	39,622	50,945	23,415	513	77	114,572
statewide	220,294	178,057	106,218	2,435	381	507,385

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 31, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	44,631	30,848	21,341	521	69	97,410
IA-02	48,740	33,184	19,135	307	67	101,433
IA-03	48,026	36,805	18,390	470	55	103,746
IA-04	31,018	39,866	16,624	369	55	87,932
statewide	172,415	140,703	75,490	1,667	246	390,521

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 30, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	56,279	38,208	29,457	734	110	124,788
IA-02	58,616	39,571	24,442	402	93	123,124
IA-03	61,886	46,954	26,881	746	96	136,563
IA-04	38,822	50,061	22,937	503	75	112,398
statewide	215,603	174,794	103,717	2,385	374	496,873

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 30, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	41,813	28,849	19,619	486	67	90,834
IA-02	45,400	31,050	17,422	282	62	94,216
IA-03	44,935	34,581	16,966	421	49	96,952
IA-04	29,963	38,460	15,926	357	51	84,757
statewide	162,111	132,940	69,933	1,546	229	366,759

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 29, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	55,833	37,945	29,249	727	110	123,864
IA-02	57,422	39,160	23,882	398	89	120,951
IA-03	61,525	46,676	26,693	742	94	135,730
IA-04	38,550	49,762	22,723	499	74	111,608
statewide	213,330	173,543	102,547	2,366	367	492,153

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 29, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	40,909	28,343	19,190	477	67	88,986
IA-02	43,647	30,248	16,649	275	58	90,877
IA-03	44,182	33,998	16,603	416	47	95,246
IA-04	29,195	37,587	15,440	346	50	82,618
statewide	157,933	130,176	67,882	1,514	222	357,727

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 26, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	52,056	35,681	26,852	676	100	115,365
IA-02	51,967	36,564	21,342	354	78	110,305
IA-03	55,679	43,261	23,802	666	82	123,490
IA-04	35,611	46,667	20,638	451	65	103,432
statewide	195,313	162,173	92,634	2,147	325	452,592

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 26, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	34,037	23,381	15,265	388	52	73,123
IA-02	35,245	24,952	12,890	212	46	73,345
IA-03	35,388	27,278	12,422	316	35	75,439
IA-04	23,254	30,174	11,691	261	35	65,415
statewide	127,924	105,785	52,268	1,177	168	287,322

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 25, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	50,196	34,555	25,782	648	96	111,277
IA-02	49,416	35,266	20,107	330	73	105,192
IA-03	53,294	41,775	22,591	627	78	118,365
IA-04	34,208	44,940	19,582	431	64	99,045
statewide	186,934	156,536	88,062	2,036	311	433,879

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 25, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	31,080	20,970	13,539	338	48	65,975
IA-02	31,857	22,587	11,284	182	41	65,951
IA-03	32,453	24,472	11,108	277	28	68,338
IA-04	20,445	26,542	10,101	230	32	57,350
statewide	115,835	94,571	46,032	1,027	149	257,614

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 24, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	48,129	33,266	24,613	629	91	106,728
IA-02	46,131	33,701	18,609	305	67	98,813
IA-03	50,501	39,819	21,162	581	74	112,137
IA-04	32,339	43,131	18,364	400	61	94,295
statewide	177,100	149,917	82,748	1,915	293	411,973

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 24, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	28,018	18,164	11,666	305	40	58,193
IA-02	28,111	19,768	9,598	161	35	57,673
IA-03	28,768	20,453	9,424	230	26	58,901
IA-04	17,985	22,547	8,483	195	27	49,237
statewide	102,882	80,932	39,171	891	128	224,004

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 23, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	45,771	32,137	23,432	599	83	102,022
IA-02	43,608	32,523	17,421	288	65	93,905
IA-03	47,805	38,662	20,089	550	69	107,175
IA-04	31,048	42,013	17,644	379	57	91,141
statewide	168,232	145,335	78,586	1,816	274	394,243

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 23, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	24,382	15,554	9,864	261	33	50,094
IA-02	24,860	16,939	8,045	136	31	50,011
IA-03	26,072	17,945	8,352	206	23	52,598
IA-04	16,740	21,019	7,752	173	24	45,708
statewide	92,054	71,457	34,013	776	111	198,411

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 22, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	43,504	31,048	22,358	564	80	97,524
IA-02	40,855	31,492	16,319	272	61	88,999
IA-03	44,953	36,458	18,649	504	63	100,627
IA-04	29,417	40,493	16,655	362	51	86,978
statewide	158,729	139,491	73,951	1,702	255	374,128

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 22, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	21,119	13,096	8,338	224	29	42,806
IA-02	22,857	15,353	7,233	119	30	45,592
IA-03	21,963	13,299	6,650	169	18	42,099
IA-04	15,511	18,991	7,049	153	21	41,725
statewide	81,450	60,739	29,270	665	98	172,222

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 19, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	42,113	30,187	21,543	546	78	94,467
IA-02	39,255	30,310	15,425	255	59	85,304
IA-03	44,120	35,546	18,133	488	60	98,347
IA-04	28,404	39,181	15,959	346	47	83,937
statewide	153,892	135,224	71,060	1,635	244	362,055

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 19, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	19,913	11,851	7,528	209	25	39,526
IA-02	21,250	13,819	6,451	106	26	41,652
IA-03	21,183	12,420	6,274	159	18	40,054
IA-04	13,828	16,595	6,038	133	18	36,612
statewide	76,174	54,685	26,291	607	87	157,844

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 18, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	39,189	27,392	19,342	504	74	86,501
IA-02	35,513	27,192	13,326	221	52	76,304
IA-03	39,364	31,328	15,754	440	55	86,941
IA-04	25,576	34,613	13,564	307	39	74,099
statewide	139,642	120,525	61,986	1,472	220	323,845

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 18, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	15,418	8,458	5,491	152	18	29,537
IA-02	16,340	10,007	4,611	74	20	31,052
IA-03	16,687	8,829	4,626	118	15	30,275
IA-04	9,915	10,921	4,129	76	10	25,051
statewide	58,360	38,215	18,857	420	63	115,915

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 17, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	37,513	25,285	17,818	479	69	81,164
IA-02	33,331	24,856	11,882	200	48	70,317
IA-03	37,332	28,399	14,365	413	52	80,561
IA-04	23,990	31,480	12,064	283	34	67,851
statewide	132,166	110,020	56,129	1,375	203	299,893

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 17, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	12,290	6,139	4,197	111	11	22,748
IA-02	13,213	7,135	3,479	60	16	23,903
IA-03	12,926	6,257	3,458	94	10	22,745
IA-04	8,021	8,096	3,266	54	8	19,445
statewide	46,450	27,627	14,400	319	45	88,841

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 16, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	35,191	23,511	16,476	451	63	75,692
IA-02	31,442	23,254	10,857	185	45	65,783
IA-03	34,279	25,460	12,816	375	48	72,978
IA-04	22,340	29,448	10,839	262	31	62,920
statewide	123,252	101,673	50,988	1,273	187	277,373

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 16, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	9,212	4,690	3,130	82	7	17,121
IA-02	10,875	5,509	2,743	49	12	19,188
IA-03	9,413	4,471	2,410	71	5	16,370
IA-04	6,839	6,698	2,681	46	7	16,271
statewide	36,339	21,368	10,964	248	31	68,950

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 15, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	32,303	20,581	14,559	405	57	67,905
IA-02	27,958	19,692	9,070	148	41	56,909
IA-03	32,668	19,690	11,552	341	45	64,296
IA-04	19,771	24,276	8,817	235	29	53,128
statewide	112,700	84,239	43,998	1,129	172	242,238

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 15, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	6,019	2,910	2,018	47	5	10,999
IA-02	6,306	3,049	1,587	30	6	10,978
IA-03	5,540	2,807	1,407	32	3	9,789
IA-04	4,038	3,860	1,567	26	4	9,495
statewide	21,903	12,626	6,579	135	18	41,261

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 12, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	30,246	17,375	13,175	385	55	61,236
IA-02	26,050	16,312	7,919	135	34	50,450
IA-03	30,698	14,972	10,360	307	43	56,380
IA-04	18,024	18,713	7,475	210	26	34,448
statewide	105,018	67,372	38,929	1,037	158	212,514

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 12, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	3,116	1,888	1,060	23	4	6,091
IA-02	4,308	1,914	1,046	22	5	7,295
IA-03	2,619	1,665	652	13	1	4,950
IA-04	2,466	2,638	940	8	3	6,055
statewide	12,509	8,105	3,698	66	13	24,391

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 11, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	28,316	12,655	11,566	345	49	52,931
IA-02	24,206	11,067	6,748	116	31	42,168
IA-03	28,698	9,439	9,075	271	40	47,523
IA-04	16,463	11,532	6,231	184	23	34,433
statewide	97,683	44,693	33,620	916	143	177,055

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 11, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	2,545	1,494	826	18	2	4,885
IA-02	3,153	1,326	708	18	4	5,209
IA-03	1,977	1,289	483	10	0	3,759
IA-04	1,881	2,009	705	6	2	4,603
statewide	9,556	6,118	2,722	52	8	18,456

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 10, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	26,932	9,802	10,690	319	47	47,790
IA-02	22,840	8,319	5,987	110	31	37,287
IA-03	27,513	7,141	8,494	260	37	43,445
IA-04	15,509	8,552	5,597	169	23	29,850
statewide	92,794	33,814	30,768	858	138	158,372

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 10, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	1,923	1,147	618	14	1	3,703
IA-02	2,429	997	523	18	4	3,971
IA-03	1,519	916	350	7	0	2,792
IA-04	1,423	1,443	515	4	2	3,387
statewide	7,294	4,503	2,006	43	7	13,853

Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 9, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	24,577	6,197	9,263	288	46	40,371
IA-02	20,838	5,258	5,105	97	31	31,329
IA-03	25,266	5,352	7,509	229	34	38,390
IA-04	13,959	4,849	4,612	147	20	23,587
statewide	84,640	21,656	26,489	761	131	133,677

Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 9, 2018
Congressional district	Democrats	Republicans	no-party	Libertarians	other	total
IA-01	1,061	606	275	10	1	1,953
IA-02	1,501	546	279	15	4	2,345
IA-03	975	466	191	4	0	1,636
IA-04	884	785	263	3	1	1,936
statewide	4,421	2,403	1,008	32	6	7,870

Top image: Booths for early voters in the Polk County Elections office.