by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, Kansas News Service
Voting in the Kansas primaries today? It’s easy. But if you have questions — like where your polling place is or what to do if you run into problems at the polls — here’s everything you need to know.
• Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Don’t forget you need to take ID to the polls. Your driver’s license or concealed carry permit will work, among other things.
• If you’re going on Monday, instead, check out our advance voting instructions. But that early voting stops at noon.
• You can only vote in the Democratic or Republican primary, not both. If you’re already affiliated with one of those parties, you have to vote in that primary. If you don’t have a party affiliation, you can pick one when you arrive at the polls.
• Remember that you can check whether you’re registered, whether you registered with a party affiliation or where your polling site is using the secretary of state’s website. If you aren’t registered, it’s too late for the primaries. But you can register for the Nov. 6 general election, of course. We have these easy instructions for registering online, by mail or in person.
• Need to double check the candidates in your area? Your online registration record will show you the districts you live in, and may show you a sample ballot listing your local candidates. If that doesn’t show up for you, you will at least see what positions you get to vote on. (For example, which seats in the Kansas House and Senate.) Then you can find the candidates for those positions on this complete candidate list. The national League of Women Voters also has this tool to find and read about your local candidates.
• If you have a criminal record, don’t assume you can’t vote. If you’ve been convicted of a misdemeanor, you can vote. If you’ve been convicted of a felony, you can vote, too, once you have completed any prison, probation and parole time you received. Just double-check that you are in fact registered.
• If you run into problems at the polls, legal groups including the ACLU of Kansas run election day hotlines in several languages for people to report problems and ask questions about voting rights:
866-OUR-VOTE for English
888-VE-Y-VOTA for Spanish
888-API-VOTE for Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Begali, Hindi, Urdu or Tagalog
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post.
See more at http://www.kcur.org/post/how-vote-tomorrow-s-kansas-primaries-and-what-do-if-you-run-problems.