By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The books close next Tuesday, July 12, to register to vote in the Aug. 2, 2016, primary election and Ellis County Clerk Donna Maskus is spreading the word.
Kansans can register in person at their local county clerk’s office, other designated sites, or online at www.voteks.org.
There are 18 locations in Ellis County where residents can register to vote. They include the city offices in each incorporated town, the city libraries, and in Hays — Fort Hays State University Memorial Union, Kansas driver’s license office, Ellis Co. Health Dept., Ellis Co. Clerk’s office and other governmental offices.
The only time you need to re-register is if you change your name, move, or you want to change your political party affiliation.
For the last election in Ellis County — the bond issue for Hays USD 489 — only two polling places were opened in “order to save costs for the school district,” Maskus explained. For the Aug. 2 primary election, all 10 polling locations will be used.
“I give high praise to the Ellis County Public Works Department,” Maskus said. “They do an outstanding job in setting up all of our polling sites each election.”
She also thanked the 40-plus election board workers, whose day extends well beyond the hours the polls are open — 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There are currently 17,743 qualified voters registered in Ellis County, according to Maskus — 8,213 Republicans, 4,360 Democrats, 171 Libertarians and 4,999 Unaffiliated. The numbers “change often until the voter books are closed,” she noted.
Advance voting in the county clerk’s office, 718 Main, starts Wednesday, July 13, and must be returned to the county clerk’s office by 7 p.m. election day. Maska’s office has already sent out ballots to federal service workers — 45 days in advance of the election — who can vote via the internet.
Ellis County will use some new equipment at the voting sites beginning with the Aug. 2 election. County commissioners approved the purchase of “election tablets” for poll workers, which Maskus says will “make it so much more efficient as the voters come in and getting that ballot ticket out to them, showing what that voter is qualified to vote on.”
Voters may use a paper ballot booth or one of 69 touch-screen electronic voting booths.
“We go through a lot of logic and accuracy testing of those machines every five months,” Maskus said. “It’s an intense process they go through before each election so we know they can tally each vote they are given.”
Every vote is tallied, “including Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. You can come in our office and look at those abstract books — the different votes are quite interesting. You might even find that somebody put your name down,” she said with a grin. Results are unofficial until canvassed by the Ellis County Commission.
There’s still time to file with the county clerk as an Independent candidate for a local or county race in the Nov. 8 general election. Deadline to file, which must be by petition, is noon, Monday, Aug. 1.
Voter registration books close Oct. 18 for the Nov. 8 general election. Maskus encouraged residents with any questions to call her office at (785) 628-9413.