Iowa Code § 53.45

This is the official text of Iowa Code § 53.45, part of Iowa’s Code — part of the compiled statutory law of Iowa, published by the state as "Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Special absentee ballot.

Official statutory text

(1) (a) As provided in this section, the commissioner shall provide special absentee ballots to be used for general elections. A special absentee ballot shall only be provided to an eligible elector who completes an application stating both of the following to the best of the eligible elector’s belief:

(1) (a) The eligible elector will be residing or stationed or working outside the continental United States.

(1) (a) The eligible elector will be unable to vote and return a regular absentee ballot by normal mail delivery within the period provided for regular absentee ballots.

(1) (b) The application for a special absentee ballot shall not be filed earlier than one hundred twenty days prior to the general election. The special absentee ballot shall list the offices and measures, if known, scheduled to appear on the general election ballot. The eligible elector may use the special absentee ballot to write in the name of any eligible candidate for each office and may vote on any measure.

(2) With any special absentee ballot issued under this section, the commissioner shall include a listing of any candidates who have filed before the time of the application for offices that will appear on the ballot at that general election and a list of any measures that have been referred to the ballot before the time of the application.

(3) Write-in votes on special absentee ballots shall be counted in the same manner provided by law for the counting of other write-in votes. The commissioner shall process and canvass the special absentee ballots provided under this section in the same manner as other absentee ballots.

(4) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 53.49, an eligible elector who requests a special absentee ballot under this section may also make application for an absentee ballot under section 53.2 or an armed forces absentee ballot under section 53.40. If the regular absentee or armed forces absentee ballot is properly voted and returned, the special absentee ballot is void and the commissioner shall reject it in whole when special absentee ballots are canvassed.

87 Acts, ch 221, §29; 88 Acts, ch 1119, §30; 2008 Acts, ch 1032, §201; 2013 Acts, ch 30, §16; 2016 Acts, ch 1003, §1

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.