September 29, 2015: Outdoor post office boxes (left) replaced the post office building (right) in McIntire in 2011.
Special elections are notoriously low-turnout things. See, for example, the vote last week on supervisor districts in Linn County, which existed only because the same resident who lobbied for a vote on reducing the board of supervisors from five to three pushed a petition demanding the selection. More people signed the petition than turned out to vote!
But also last week, the northern Iowa town of McIntire was supposed to have a vote on changing mayor and council terms of office — and no one voted. Stories: Mason City Globe Gazette, KWWL/AP. The poll workers couldn’t vote because they were from out of town. There are only 70 registered voters total.
It’s been more than six years since the post office in McIntire was closed (PDF, p.11), one of a batch shut down in 2011 before Iowa got a moratorium on further closures.