Wyandotte County voters have returned more than a third of requested mail-in ballots
With voting just underway in Wyandotte County, voters have returned more than a third of the mail-in ballots that have been requested, according to election commissioner Bruce Newby.
Voters requested 22,641 ballots and as of Thursday, 8,309 have been returned, he said. The Wyandotte County Election Office doesn’t keep track of how they are received, so Newby couldn’t say how many were returned in the mail or at a drop box.
“So far, the return on voted ballots has been pretty good,” Newby said.
Early voting started Tuesday at two locations in Wyandotte County and in the first two days, 2,677 had voted — 1,434 the first day and 1,243 the second.
The county currently has two locations in Kansas City, Kansas, where people can vote in-person early — the Election Office at 850 State Ave. and the Eisenhower Recreation Center at 2901 N. 72nd St. A third location, the Joe E. Amayo Argentine Community Center at 2810 Metropolitan Ave., opens on Saturday.
“I’m not seeing any big lines or lines period,” he said. “When I went out to Eisenhower Recreation Center yesterday (Wednesday) morning, there was absolutely no line at all.”
Newby cautioned people not to wait if they are planning to vote early in-person.
“At this point in time, people need to be aware that they need to vote early if they are not going to vote on Election Day,” Newby said. “The people who wait to vote in-person during the early voting period customarily wait until the last day and then there’s huge lines. So now is the time to vote if you’re going to vote early.”
Voters waiting for Election Day should have no problem because there are more polling locations than they are early voting sites, he said.
Officially, there are in excess of 90,000 registered voters in the county, but there are about 10,000 who no longer live in the county but are stilled carried on the books, he said. The highest turnout the county has had goes back to the 2008 general election, when Barack Obama was first elected president.
“But officially the total voter registration then was 91,183, and 57,595 people actually voted and that’s a 63.16% turnout,” Newby said. “I figure the best case scenario we will probably get about 62,000 people voting in this election.”
There’s a lot of registered voters who don’t vote. “Of course you can’t force a person to vote,” Newby said.
Newby said he waited to open the third location until Saturday because that location historically has never turned out significant numbers.
“I didn’t want to have election workers sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for people to show up because that becomes very, very expensive,” he said. “I only got so much money in my budget and I manage it accordingly.”
Advance voting can be done between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Oct. 31 at all three locations; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays at the Election Office and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at the other two locations. Advance voting is also available from 8 a.m. to noon Nov. 2 at the Election Office.
Last week, the Kansas Democratic Party criticized Newby for the lack drop-off boxes for advance ballots.
Additional drop boxes have been installed and there are now five locations, Newby said:
- Unified Government City Hall at 701 N. Seventh St. in Kansas City, Kansas.
- Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library’s West Branch at 1737 N 82nd St. in Kansas City, Kansas.
- Bonner Springs Library at 201 N Nettleton Ave. in Bonner Springs.
- Edwardsville City Hall at 690 S. Fourth St. in Edwardsville.
- Election Office at 850 State Ave. in Kansas City, Kansas.
Newby said those who are going to drop off their ballots or mail them in should do it sooner rather than later.
“Obviously, we don’t want people to wait ‘til the very last day to turn their advance ballot-by-mail in because that makes it that much more difficult to be able to produce any kind of on election night,” Newby said. “So if they are going to vote early in person, vote early, as early in the advance voting period as they possibly can.”
While ballot drop off boxes may be popular, Newby said there’s nothing to worry about sending the ballot in by mail.
“Voters can very safely return your ballot by mail because the U.S. Postal Service is doing an excellent job of not only delivering the mail ballots to voters but also getting the voter ballot back to us,” he said.
For instance, his wife’s ballot was mailed Oct. 14 and she got her ballot two days later.
“Now the obvious problem is towards the very end, if the Postal Service is slammed with a whole bunch of ballots coming back, then it makes it that much more difficult for the Postal Service to do its job and stay on pace with that two-day-delivery,” he said. “Their standard for First Class mail, and that’s what ballots are, is three to five days.”
Mail-in ballots have to be postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day and has to be received by the election office by the following Friday, he said.
Newby also cautioned voters to make sure that they sign statement one on the reverse side of their ballot return envelop. That’s the most common mistake voters make.
“If that Statement One is not signed, the law says I cannot open and I cannot count that ballot,” he said. “And it’s appalling the number of people who do not sign their envelop. It’s an absolute requirement and it’s fatal if they don’t do it.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 11:42 AM.
