EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Love it or hate it, advance voting is here to stay, and according to Seward County Clerk Stacia Long, it’s been growing locally.
“I’ve actually seen increased early voting for quite some time,” she said. “We had early voting across from my office when it started, and we had to move upstairs to accommodate the number of voters we had. We’ve always had pretty good early voting turnout. It’s not one party or the other, it’s all of our voters.”
Advance voting began in Kansas Monday, and Seward County saw one of the single strongest days since the process began with 188 voters casting ballots.
“It was probably the highest we’ve ever had,” Long said. “Even in Meade County had record turnout. They had 77, which is quite bit for them in a day.”
The second day started a little calmer, but voters continued to make their preferences known two weeks before Election Day.
Of those casting ballots, Long said the make-up of voters was diverse.
“There was a mix,” she said. “We had some first-time voters but mostly regular voters.”
There was not a late rush of registrations like there had been in the past, but Long believed that was because of presidential preference and primary elections earlier in the year where voters already registered to participate in those elections.
In Kansas, Long said she will have a board that will count advance votes, but not until the polls close Nov. 4.
“I have a board that opens advance votes, usually on Election Day,” she said. “We don’t close out the machine until 7 p.m. on Election Night. Normally that’s the first machine we close because we ran all the ballots.”
This election has Long believing that turnout will be strong.
“There is a lot of interest,” Long said. “For two weeks we’ve been fielding calls about early voting, when will we start. We have more college students applying for ballots to be mailed. I see more of that than a typical election. I noticed in the 2020 general election we had more early vote than we did on election day. I think we will have more voters, good turnout, but I believe it helps traffic on Election Day.”
The primary had a disappointing turnout according to Long, but it was statewide.
“Kansas had the lowest turnout ever,” she said. “Not just here. What does that mean? Were the voters satisfied? People don’t realize races are determined in the primary. You have a low number of people choosing candidates.”
Locally, Long will have three write-in races to watch as well with two county commission races facing write-in challenges as well as the race for the Register of Deeds.
“We will have counting boards,” Long said. “We will know after we close out the polls how many write ins in each race. We will know if that will affect the outcome. I am not obligated to count write ins on Election Night, but I will take the time on each of those races if the number will affect the outcome. It does take a lot of time, but it’s not anything different than we’ve always done, just more write ins.”
Long also has to count 14 write ins for president that qualified through the Kansas Secretary of State’s office. The ballot will only have candidates for the Independent Party, Libertarian Party, Democratic Party and Republican Party.
Long encouraged voters to check out the ballots available online prior to coming in to vote. There are multiple selections to make, and Long said her office cannot provide any voting advice.
“They need to do their homework and know how they want to vote,” she said. “We can’t answer any questions regarding the ballot.”
One voter asked about questions about judges, and Long said she and her office cannot provide any information.
“The advice we give poll workers is to cancel their ballot and let them go home, study, and come back. People can print their ballot and bring them with them and use it. There is also no reason they can’t use their phone.”
Long said advance voting will continue until noon the day before Election Day.
“We are going to have Saturday voting 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” she said. “Next Saturday we will also be open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., but if volume is large, we will extend that. Advance voting ends at noon day before Election Day by statute.”
