By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
The Ellis County Clerk’s office is preparing for the process of counting thousands of votes Friday in Hays USD 489’s local option budget election — a process Ellis County Clerk and election officer Donna Maskus believes will go quickly.
“I hope Friday will go smooth, and we will be able to get (the results) on Friday, that is my hope,” she said.
The deadline to return ballots is noon Friday. The school district is asking voters to approve a 1 percent increase in the LOB, a move that would generate an estimated $200,000 for the district. Should that measure be approved, the district has the right to increase the LOB up to an additional 2 percent for one year.
Maskus said her staff will begin tabulating the votes around 1 p.m. Friday, following a strict election plan approved by the Kansas Secretary of State’s office.
“A lot of people, come in and are worried I’m going to know how they voted,” Maskus said. “Secrecy of the ballot is very important to us … We are not going to look at ballot and associate it with the ballot envelope. … It is opened, it is folded, it goes to the next person, it is turned upside down on a pile of 100 and they will tabulate the votes.”
Maskus said she believes her staff could have all the votes counted by 5 p.m. Friday.
“I believe things will things will move (quickly) because it is just ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and it is recorded in a tally book so it will be on paper,” she said. “I’m not using the election machines this time, because we are saving dollars for USD 489 as they will pay for the total process of the election
“That was my goal — to keep the costs down but do it professionally, and we are,” Maskus added.
Once the votes are counted, the results are unofficial until the vote is canvassed by the Ellis County Commission.
If the LOB passes, more than $200,000 will go to USD 489 – a district that has been struggling with a more than $1 million budget shortfall.
The LOB election is an option Kansas Legislatures provided as part of the the spring’s passage of HB-2056, which settled a state school funding lawsuit, but provided less funds for many districts such as USD 489.
The school funding compromise offers options for school boards to make up for lost funding, through passage of a local option budget increase from 30 percent to 31 percent.
The Legislation also provides the board of education the option to raise the 31 percent to 32 percent or 33 percent for one year, a move school board president Greg Schwartz has said “most likely” will happen. After a year, the LOB would go back to 31 percent.
Related Story: USD 489 officials share their message with community on talking tour.