The latest information from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office shows at least 68,000 Iowans cast their primary ballots early, before in-person voting began this morning at precincts around the state.
Secretary of State Paul Pate, the state’s commissioner of elections, said the data indicates it’s a significant drop compared to early voting in the 2022 Primary Elections. “Going into this, I expected a higher participation level because of all the primaries,” Pate said shortly after 3 p.m. today, “the U.S. Senate, gubernatorial and so many others.”
Iowa law requires absentee ballots to be in a county auditor’s office by 8 p.m. in order to be counted in the election, so some additional ballots that were delivered today will be added to final the early voting tally.
A report issued at 7 a.m. this morning showed about 60% percent of the early votes cast came from Democrats and 40% were from Republicans. Pate said a few county auditors tell him there’s a bit more in-person voting today than they had expected, but Pate does not expect any turnout records to be set in this year’s primary elections. “Political parties don’t drive voter turnout in the primaries,” Pate said. “This all falls under the realm of the candidates themselves and it doesn’t appear to be any campaigns who are really spending a lot of resources on voter turnout.”
In the last midterm election in 2022, more than 356,000 Iowans voted in Iowa’s Primaries. It was the second-highest voter turnout since 1994.
Early Vote Tallies as of 7 a.m. June 2, 2026
Iowa’s first congressional district
Democrats 13,141
Republicans 6,333
Iowa’s second congressional district
Democrats 10,301
Republicans 4,949
Iowa’s third congressional district
Democrats 10,156
Republican 5,804
Iowa’s fourth congressional district
Democrats 6,946
Republicans 10,370