After ‘unprecedented’ election, longtime Wyandotte County official says he will retire
Bruce Newby, the Wyandotte County election commissioner, will retire from his position February 1.
Newby had been the top election official in Wyandotte County since 2006 when he was appointed by then Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh.
Newby made his retirement known in a letter Friday to Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab.
Newby’s letter thanked the election staff with whom he has worked.
“Election year 2020 carried with it unprecedented and life-threatening challenges,” Newby’s retirement letter said. “The coronavirus pandemic made conducting safe elections for voters and election workers a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. But we successfully prepared for and conducted safe elections, made possible by the many election workers who dedicated themselves to the task despite the health risks facing them.”
Newby was at loggerheads this year with officials from both the Kansas Democratic Party and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, over the availability of funding for ballot drop-boxes in the county.
As advanced voting was set to begin before the general election, Wyandotte County at one point had only two drop-boxes to receive ballots from voters who requested advanced ballots. That was fewer than some counties with only a fraction of Wyandotte County’s population.
Newby said he had to convince the UG to spend money to get additional drop-boxes while the UG said Newby did not tell them in time.
Voter turnout in Wyandotte County was 63% in the general election, slightly higher than the last presidential year general election in 2016.
Newby was not immediately available to discuss his decision to retire.
Schwab, who appoints the election commissioners in Kansas’ largest counties, including Johnson and Wyandotte, said he will work with Unified Government representatives to interview and pick Newby’s replacement.
“Bruce Newby has faithfully served our state and country throughout his remarkable career — as a commissioned officer in the United States Army, senior civil engineer for homeland security for the URS Corporation, and, since 2006, election commissioner of Wyandotte County,” Schwab said in a statement. “On behalf of the state of Kansas, we offer Mr. Newby our heartfelt gratitude for the diligence and dedication in which he led the Wyandotte County election office. We wish him well in his retirement.”
