by Mary Rupert
Voters have already cast thousands of ballots for the fall general election in Wyandotte County, according to Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby.
Of more than 22,000 advance ballots that were mailed last week to voters, 4,359 already have been returned, he said.
Wyandotte County is offering advance voting by mail, advance voting in person, and voting on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, in person at assigned polling places.
In-person advance voting started on Tuesday at two locations, and an additional 1,434 persons voted, he said. The two locations are the Election Office at 850 State Ave. and Eisenhower Recreation Center at 2901 N. 72nd St. A third advance voting site, the Amayo-Argentine Recreation Center, 2810 Metropolitan Ave., will begin advance voting on Oct. 24.
“The first day was gangbusters,” Newby said about advance voting in person. But today he went by Eisenhower Center and was not impressed, he added. There weren’t lines and there weren’t that many cars there the second day.
A little over 700 people voted at Eisenhower Recreation Center on Tuesday, and there were 18 voting machines in service, he said. On Tuesday, there were small lines that were fairly short, he said. There was no line this morning, he added.
Part of the reason voters may have to wait in line, if a lot of people turn out at the same time, is the requirement for social distancing, once people are inside.
While election workers cannot turn away anyone for not wearing a mask, they can ask people to socially distance, and lines are marked on the floor for people to judge distances, he said. The voter lines move very quickly, he added.
Currently the Election Office has two drop boxes outdoors at 850 State Ave. for voters to drop off ballots they received by mail. Another four drop boxes are on order and are not in yet. Usage of the drop boxes is not what was expected.
“An amazing number of voters walk right by it and bring it in,” Newby said. The voters don’t want to put their ballots in the drop box, and are not convinced it’s secure, he said. They want to put their ballots in the hands of the Election Office staff, he said.
The two drop boxes plus four additional ones should accommodate about 12,000 ballots, he said. There were only 22,000 mail ballots sent out so far, so he doesn’t see the drop boxes getting used that much.
The drop boxes will save voters the cost of a stamp on their ballots, and considering the cost of each ballot drop box was about $3,500, the money might have been better spent if the Unified Government had paid return postage on envelopes for the voters, he said, but that isn’t what they wanted.
Voters also can take their mail ballot back to the three advance voting sites during the hours they are open for advance voting, and on Election Day to any polling place in Wyandotte County.
How to keep track of your ballot
There is a Voter View page through the Kansas secretary of state’s office that will tell voters if their ballots have been sent to them, if the ballot has been received by the office. It will be updated within a day of the office receiving the ballot, he said.
The Voter View page at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView will tell if a voter is registered, ballot status and polling place location. The Election Office has still been receiving calls about whether people’s ballots have been received.
Besides Voter View for information, the Election Office has sent out a postcard last week to registered voters telling the hours for voting at all early voting sites and locations. The Election Office still receives a lot of calls about it, even though the postcard has gone out.
While voters are encouraged to send in applications for mail ballots early, the deadline is Oct. 27 under state law. Newby said his office staff will send ballots to the voter either the same day as the request or not later than the next day. The deadline under the statute is three days. Election officials still encourage voters to send in advance mail ballot applications as soon as possible, to avoid waiting until the last minute.
Ballots that are received at the Election Office early are not counted until Election Day.
Filling out the advance ballot
The most common mistake Newby sees on ballots returned by mail is the voter has not signed the back of the return ballot envelope. That is a fatal error, and the law says he cannot open and count that ballot, he said.
There are spaces for three signatures on the back of the ballot. The first, for the voter’s name, has to be signed.
The second signature line is for a person assisting the voter. The third statement has a line for a person who is assisting a disabled voter who is unable to sign.
“The critical thing is the voter’s signature has to be in statement 1 at the top left of the back side of the envelope,” Newby said. Instructions are provided on the back of the envelope.
Newby said the Legislature mandated the signatures on the back of the envelope, and if it was up to him, he would have designed it differently.
Turnout expected to be about 65 percent
Wyandotte County expects to see about double the number of ballot applications, over 24,000, for the fall general election, he said.
Newby said he expected voter turnout to be about 65 percent of the registered voters here in the fall election. That is about what has been seen in some past presidential election years.
Also, Newby said that when he speaks to community groups, he reminds them that while it is good to sign up more people to register to vote, it would be even better to remind the people who are already registered to get out and vote. There are more of those who are registered and don’t vote than there are who are newly registered voters, he added.
Newby said he believes voting by mail is the most convenient method to vote, and it’s easy to put a stamp on a ballot and mail it back. Kansas has been voting by mail for 53 years and it’s not new, he added.
The Election Office welcomes voters at any of the options, voting by mail, advance voting in person and voting in person on Election Day, he said.
At the state level, the secretary of state’s office reported Wednesday that almost 20 percent of the ballots statewide had been returned. Over 97,000 ballots were returned from the 487,231 ballots that were mailed, and 62,579 ballots have been cast in person statewide. The mail ballots requested were about five times higher than in 2016, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Advance voting hours and dates
Advance in-person voting at three early voting centers started at 8 a.m. Oct. 20 at the Election Office at 850 State Ave.; 10 a.m. Oct. 20 at Eisenhower Recreation Center, 2901 N. 72nd St.; and will start at 10 a.m. Oct. 24 at the Joe Amayo-Argentine Community Center, 2810 Metropolitan Ave., Kansas City, Kansas. See https://wycovotes.org/november-3-general-election or the information below for remaining times and dates. The centers are closed on Sundays.
• Election Office, 850 State Ave., early voting hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 20 to Oct. 23; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 26 through Oct. 30; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31; 8 a.m. to noon Monday, Nov. 2.
• Joe Amayo-Argentine Community Center, 2810 Metropolitan Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, early voting hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 26 through Oct. 30; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
• Eisenhower Recreation Center, 2901 N. 72nd St., Kansas City, Kansas, early voting hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 20 through Oct. 24; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 26 through Oct. 30; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
The voter registration deadline has closed for the fall election. The Wyandotte County Election Office at 850 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, has more information about voter registration, mail ballots and advance voting at wycovotes.org, or email [email protected], or call the Election Office at 913-573-8500.