Are you still registered to vote? Are you sure?
If you’re not sure, you can visit the Voter View website online to check it, at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/.
The voter registration deadline for the Aug. 2 primary election is tomorrow, July 12. Voters may walk in their voter registration forms and bring proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, to the Wyandotte County Election Office, 9th and State Avenue, Kansas City, Kan., between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. They may also mail in a voter registration form, with proof of citizenship, postmarked by Tuesday.
Recently, the Lawrence Journal-World reported that the number of voters registered in Wyandotte County is down by about 7,000.
Today, Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby said he couldn’t confirm the number of voters who have been taken off the list of registered voters for 2016 as compared to 2014, but there is a significant number because of a large number of residents who move each year.
The number of registered voters posted online on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website showed 71,528 in 2015 in Wyandotte County, as compared to 81,930 in 2014 in Wyandotte County, a difference of 10,402. The numbers for 2013 were 81,874 and for 2010, they were 82,906, according to the secretary of state’s website.
While the number seems high to him, Newby said it wouldn’t be unusual to see large numbers of people in Wyandotte County moving to another county in the state or to Missouri. “We sometimes joke there are too many Wyandotte County residents on roller skates,” he said. “We just have a lot of coming and going for the data base.”
He said there usually are a lot of mail ballots that are returned because they don’t have a return address. When mail that was sent to a voter is returned by the post office to the election office, that initiates a confirmation process, he said. The election office sends out a letter to voters to confirm their address. If the voter does not respond, the election office waits for two federal elections, or four years, to delete that voter from the registration list, he said.
The election office also receives the national postal service change of address notifications, he added.
Newby said just because people didn’t vote is not a reason to delete them from the registration list. They stay on the list unless the confirmation process is started.
“The law’s pretty strict,” he said. “We can’t just take somebody off the voter rolls.”
He said it often happens that when people are getting a driver’s license at the Division of Motor Vehicles, they are asked if they want to register to vote, and they do. Many of them move again and their name shows up on the national change of address program, he said.
Newby said the last time the election office would have purged the voter rolls was 2014, and currently, he doesn’t have the files to compare voter registration now to 2014.
Besides moving, voters can drop off the list if they have a felony conviction or if they die. The election office gets confirmation from the state on felony convictions. It uses the Social Security database for deaths, he said.
Once a convicted felon has served his time and is finished with probation and parole, he can re-register to vote, Newby said. Convicted felons don’t lose their voting rights forever, he added.
The Kansas requirement of providing proof of citizenship has been challenged in federal courts recently. A document such as a birth certificate or U.S. passport, or a number of other documents, is used to prove citizenship.
It was reported this month that more than 5,000 voters in Kansas were on the “suspense” list.
That means their voter registration applications are incomplete, for a variety of reasons, Newby said.
The reason they are incomplete might be that they didn’t sign the form, or they did not indicate they were a citizen or 18 years old, or if they didn’t give a valid address, he said. If they failed to provide proof of citizenship, they are registered to vote in the federal elections for offices such as U.S. Senate and U.S. House, but not for the state and local elections.
When the voters in “suspense” cast their ballots, the ballots are treated as provisional ballots, he said. When they are counted, only the votes for federal offices are counted, if the voter doesn’t complete the process.
Newby said if the voter does not give proof of citizenship, his office follows up with a 30-day notice, followed by a 60-day notice. There is a period of time allowed before the election to bring in proof of citizenship, mail in a copy of it, or take a picture of it and email it.
It costs about $5 per voter for postage and staff time to send out the notices, Newby added, and by law he is required to send out two notices, but he sends out three.
Voters should update their voter registration information when they have a change of address, a name change or when they have decided to change their party affiliation, and they will fill out a new voter registration form.
To find out more information about registering to vote, visit http://www.wycovotes.org/ or call the Wyandotte County Election Commission office at 913-573-8500. Voter registration forms are online at http://www.wycovotes.org/s/VRcardDec2012.pdf.