SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
The Iowa Secretary of State says the state is on track to set an early voting record. And, at the Western Iowa Tech Community College campus on Thursday, hundreds of people came out to vote early.
Lois Darrow was one of the voters. This is her first time voting at a satellite location.
"We heard this on the radio that they were doing early voting here, and we decided it wouldn't be very crowded and we came," she said.
Darrow joins thousands of Iowans across the state who are also voting early.
"We're about 3,000 ahead of the pace of where we were in 2008," Pat Gill, Woodbury County Auditor said.
Gill says his office is trying to encourage more people to vote early, in case of bad weather or a schedule conflict on Election Day. He says nearly half of the votes in Woodbury County this year will come from early voters. And that's something political leaders have been thinking about.
"Well, the democratic party actually has done a much better job historically as far as getting out the vote early but they're starting to lose that advantage," Gill said.
Woodbury County Democratic Chair Gregory Guelcher says, because this presidential race is such a tight contest, workers have been doing all they can to get people to vote early.
"The nice thing about early voting is it's a vote in the bank and it allows the party to better direct their resources to getting out the remainder of the vote," Gregory Guelcher, Woodbury County Democratic Chair said
Linda Holub, Woodbury County Republican Co-chair agrees that the presidential election will be close. And that's why she says the party is ramping up efforts to knock on doors and call people to remind them to vote early.
"Republicans like to go to the polls it's just one of their characteristics, they really feel better about the security of their vote by going to the poll on Election Day, but this is the first year, we as Republicans have pushed them to vote early," Linda Holub said.
Meanwhile, voters at the Western Iowa Tech Community College campus say they've tried to largely ignore political ads and calls.
"They're kind of annoying, so no they didn't help, and my mind had already been made up," Darrow said.
Others like Daniel Gibson says it's just a matter of convenience.
"It's really convenient and wanted to make sure I had the time and didn't miss the date," Gibson said.
