By County. The term of office is four years (Sedgwick County voted to remove term limits for all county elected officials). They didn’t realize there was a delay there. “At every site, there will be prepared to have an election worker be the final caboose to the line.” Schnieders said, “That person will be the one to say it’s after 7. She said, “It takes about an hour for a fast person to go through it to accept those, so it’s not a super-fast process. 252804(a), (b)] Attend required Election Worker Training each calendar year (two training classes, 2-3 hours each) [K.S.A. 316-302-5480 scrpchairman@gmail.com. If the ballot is accepted, it moves onto the next step for it to be open, and the ballot runs through a tabulation machine, which tallies up the ballot results and saves the result until election night. We are seeing people… I love it. 70 printers that can be placed at polling sites to instantly print ballots if the line for machines gets backed up or there’s a breakdown and poll workers need to switch to paper ballots — $168,750. “Take a little bit extra patience with you. Howell was joined in dissent by Commissioner Michael O’Donnell. The Board of Elections holds general elections, caucuses, primaries, and special elections, including elections for Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas state, and federal offices. NOVEMBER 2020 • Monday, November 2 – 12:00 pm deadline to cast advance ballots in person at county election office. 1-833-890-9217. Once you fill out an advance ballot, you can either mail it … For assistance, call the county election office at 316-660-7100. Adding in-person and accepted vote by mail ballots, 135,447 people have voted in Sedgwick County. The Sedgwick County Historic Courthouse will have early voting hours from 8 a.m.-noon Monday, Nov. 2. That’s according to the county’s central services manager, Anna Meyerhoff, who gave county commissioners an update Tuesday on preparations for the November 3rd election. Find out what works well at Sedgwick County Election Office from the people who know best. WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - With the majority of unofficial results tabulated in Sedgwick County on election night, the numbers tell the story. Sunday, Eyewitness News got a look inside the Sedgwick County Election Office to learn about the process to verify and count mail-in ballots and the steps they’re taking to prepare for Election Day. The purpose of the grant is to help counties with election operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not a problem if somebody mismarked their ballot, and they do a cross out and a circle around the one they want. Ballots will be accepted until 7pm on election day. “Yes we do have money in the budget to conduct elections, but if we can do a better job of conducting elections (with the money) I don’t see a problem with that,” Dennis said. We had a couple that came in yesterday because we were open for early voting ‘. “They are simply trying to help facilitate this (election). This election is predicted to be historic. The group found that Sedgwick County’s election office is understaffed when compared with other counties. But we want to do it right. The money at issue is from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit foundation with ties to Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla, who donated $250 million to the cause of assisting election offices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sedgwick County accepts $816,000 for election office despite ties to Facebook fortune. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Sedgwick County Election Office has placed ballot drop boxes at 14 locations around Sedgwick County. The preliminary count of registered voters is 322,406, so the early turnout is about 42 percent. Sedgwick County Voter Records are documents that list information about a registered voters in Sedgwick County, Colorado. You may also vote in person at the Sedgwick County Clerk & Recorder's office 8 days before the Election (15 days before a General election). It knows,” said Schnieders. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, U.S. files conspiracy charge against Oath Keeper leader in alleged plot against the Capitol, How Trump will hand off the 'nuclear football' to Biden. Hundreds, if not thousands, lined up throughout the day Monday at both the downtown Sedgwick County Election Office and at the county's new mega - early voting site at Intrust Bank Arena. ‘I’m sorry you can’t join the line.’ We’ll know where the end of the line is for every single site.”. https://ballotpedia.org/Municipal_elections_in_Sedgwick_County,_Kansas_(2020) The first results released election night will be from early voting. Promotion of early voting and ballot drops, including translation of materials into Vietnamese and Spanish —$8,000. “A manual board that goes through all of those and they manual tally them. The Sedgwick County Election Office is dedicated to making the voting process for the upcoming General Election as easy as possible for you. How great to hear from so much Democratic talent. We want our ballots to count.’”. The Sedgwick County election office will have 11 satellite voting locations open Thursday through Saturday for people who want to vote early in the August primary. The final total of mail-in ballots sent out is 96,087, and so far, 68,802 have been accepted back. Early in-person voting runs from Oct. 19 - Nov. 2 at locations throughout the county. About the Sedgwick County Board of Elections. Then comes the signature verification process, where the signature on the ballot is matched with the one on record from previous mail-in ballots, voter registration or DMV. ? Schnieder said, "We are preparing for it as we speak. “We have a right and we have a duty to ensure that people who want to vote in person can do that safely and securely. Maybe make friends with your neighbor. We originally anticipated 60 percent. • Tuesday, October 27 – Deadline for voters to apply for advance ballots to be mailed for the General Election. I’ve worked with many people on this board for years. ? After a lengthy debate over private money in public elections, a slim majority of Sedgwick County commissioners voted Wednesday to accept an $816,000 grant to improve voter access in the Nov. 3 election. An e-mail from Sedgwick County Election Office misstated the date voters need to return the ballots. “We have no idea. Plus, years prior, people put it in the mail. Your office was very proactive in its approach to managing this influx of voters. There is still time to vote early in-person. “Super high, record-setting, record-breaking, shattering all records" are the adjectives Sedgwick County Deputy Election Commissioner Melissa Schnieders used for the 2020 election. 100 new touch-screen voting machines —$423,700. “To me it’s very ,very clear that they do not have any kind of agenda with this,” she said. Be a U.S. citizen and a registered elector in Sedgwick County – OR – be a U.S. citizen living in Sedgwick County and a student at least 16 years old [K.S.A. The first step is for the mail-in ballots, which are still in their envelopes, to be sorted and counted. The voters just don’t understand.” She said, “Prior to this year, you couldn’t go online to check the status, you had no idea if we got it back or not. As of noon Sunday in Sedgwick County, this is the latest count for the 2020 General Election of advanced voting. Early in-person voting runs from Oct. 19 - Nov. 2 at locations throughout the county . We have to do these things that are unprecedented now and this will allow us to have shorter wait times and more locations with more machines.”. Contact Us Online. “I think any American should be concerned if Mark Zuckerberg is trying to go around the country giving money to election offices.”. We’re going to use two floors of our courthouse to make this happen, and we will have all hands on deck for it.”. President . If the signature is not accepted, Schnieder said she sends a letter to those voters to complete a curing process. They need your help. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. “I feel like not accepting this grant is an act of voter suppression,” she said. Sedgwick County will have 83 polling places opened on Election. ONLINE STREAM. Toll Free Payment Number. I have absolutely zero (indication) of their own personal political beliefs.”. We need to fix this. 77.7%. Of those, 2000 were deemed ineligible. WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) -It’s been a long and unusual election season, and its climax is nearing. The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office will increase security at roughly 70 voting sites across the county on Nov. 3 to ensure every voter has the opportunity to vote in a safe environment. Next, those envelopes are run through what’s called a Tritech machine. “We only use it for this one purpose. LISTEN LIVE Reviews from Sedgwick County Election Office employees about Sedgwick County Election Office culture, salaries, benefits, work-life balance, management, job security, and more. The camera takes a picture of the whole envelope, and then it takes out of just the signature, snaps that out for us. I think we’re going to hit 80 percent turnout, which is phenomenal.”. The last day to register to vote in Kansas is Oct. 13. The Sedgwick County Board of Elections, located in Wichita, KS, is a government office that oversees local elections in Wichita. Connect with friends faster than ever with the new Facebook app. They are not waiting on this. Hours . In Kansas, polls open on Election Day at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m., but anyone in line by 7 p.m. will still be able to count. We want to be diligent. Buy secure streetside boxes for people to drop off mail ballots to ensure they don’t get delayed by the Post Office, including security cameras and installation —$19,502. I’m going to fix my ballot.’ So, I have to go find it from whoever is processing it and find that envelope. Now they’re like we’re going to do 80. Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit foundation with ties, https://www.kdor.ks.gov/apps/voterreg/Default.aspx. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. You’ll be at your own polling site, so everyone there must live within about a mile of you,” said Schnieders. Sedgwick County plans to install more than a dozen ballot drop boxes ahead of the November general election. Wichita has nine candidates running for mayor, and the primary ballot will also feature … Sedgwick County will have 83 polling places opened on Election. Listen at work or while you surf. “There’s concerns about who’s influencing elections.”, He said he researched the origin of the grant money and “There was a lot of credit given to Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook.”. She said her office already has a “long-standing relationship” with the center and in the past has used its software tools for purposes such as predicting turnout and placing polling stations to accommodate the traffic efficiently. Sedgwick County Election Office working toward a “safe, secure and fair election”, © Provided by Wichita-Hutchinson Plus KWCH-DT. Schnieders said any machine that tabulates or process results are connected to the internet. ? ? Back My Polling Place Register to Vote County Election Office ABOUT Our Leadership Our GOP Elected ... sedgwick county commissioner michael o’donnell, district 2. sedgwick county commissioner jim howell, district 5. © Copyright 2021 Now, if you put it in the box this morning, you’re anticipating we’re picking it up in hours. ‘Let me fix it.’ ‘Where is it? He said he had checked over the grant agreement very carefully and saw “no strings whatsoever” that would affect the outcome of the election or give any advantage to either a political party or their candidates. Never miss a story or breaking news alert! Top Races. For assistance, call the county election office at 316-660-7100. “It’s going to be big. We want to be sure about our election results.”. To find out if you’re registered and where to vote, visit myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView. Christy, EAC: More than 300,000 people registered to vote in Sedgwick County ahead of the 2018 Midterm Election, the largest number in county history. Kansas lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow Sedgwick County to get around a state-imposed hold on using open polling for the 2020 election cycle.. It has three full-time employees and six part-time. There is still time to vote early in-person. ? 36,628 talking about this. Contact the Election Office: 316-660-7100 Cultivate a healthy, safe and welcoming community through exceptional public services, effective partnerships and dedicated employees. Signature cures are coming in left and right, by fax, by email, popping in the office. The process can be about five hours for one ballot to run through this process. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. I’m like what, but I think we are. Sedgwick County. There’s actually time, clocks to these things, so we can’t do it ahead of time. The drop boxes will be placed strategically in cities around Sedgwick County … Then it batches them,” Schnieders said. More From Wichita-Hutchinson Plus KWCH-DT. Please call 316-542-3131 to report any outages. Previously approved “hazard pay” of an extra $2 an hour for poll workers risking COVID-19 exposure to work at polling places — $83,000. Uncover why Sedgwick County Election Office is the best company for you. All Races. Once the ballot is received by the election office, either through the postal service, at one of the drop boxes or returned at the polling place, it’s not an instantaneous check-in and approval process. She also said the commissioners opposing the private-sector grant are the same ones who routinely complain at length about spending taxpayer dollars. They’re in our office within 30 minutes. The Sedgwick County election office has processed over 68,000 applications for mail ballots for the November general election, and another 20,000 are waiting to be processed. Toll Free: 1-866-542-4REC (4732) Fax: 316-542-3943. Commissioner Lacey Cruse, who had brought the grant opportunity to the county’s attention, said the grant was vetted by the election commissioner, county management and finance staff. Upcoming elections in Sedgwick County: Primary Election - August 4, 2020, Partisan Primary Election (Democratic Party and Republican Party) General Election - November 3, 2020, Presidential General Election Howell’s stance on taking the money put him on the opposite side of Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman, his sister-in-law. We also have a write-in board that reviews all the write-in ballots, and they also tally those as well. The change comes after organizers received word from the Sedgwick County Election Office that it would not recount the petition they had submitted for the November ballot after several errors occurred in the initial count. “We have to social distance, we have to wear masks. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, U.S. files conspiracy charge against Oath Keeper leader in alleged plot against the Capitol, How Trump will hand off the 'nuclear football' to Biden. Schnieders said, “It’s typically 24-48 hour turnaround, but we were so bombarded at the beginning with everybody excitedly returning their ballots, we just got a little buried.”. Newly elected commissioners take office on the second Tuesday in … Additional operating supplies — $93,506. Many voters are also seeing that their ballot had an error and coming in to fix it. Commissioner Jim Howell said he doesn’t think the extra money will affect the outcome either, but he thinks accepting the grant would raise questions among some voters. “Why is it taking so long. Even with the high level of advanced voting in Sedgwick County, Schnieders said they’re anticipating an equally busy day at polls on election day. This year, voters can check their mail-in ballot online to see if it’s been approved or denied for any reason. Contributing: Chance Swaim of The Eagle Mail could take a day or two, sometimes three days. ? Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) has awarded Sedgwick County’s Election Office with a grant of more than $800,000. Through early in-person voting, 66,675 ballots have been cast. Space rental for additional equipment storage — $20,000. “I’ve received voicemails and feedback from several people that were concerned about that, but I don’t know that it diminishes the fact that we can offset the future purchase (of) things that can make our elections run smoother right now by accepting 800 and some thousand dollars,” said Commissioner David Dennis, who joined commissioners Pete Meitzner and Lacey Cruse in voting to accept the grant. See all photos taken at Sedgwick County Election Office by 37 visitors. Two county commissioners are elected in the presidential election year and one is elected at the intervening general election. Get the inside scoop on jobs, salaries, top office locations, and CEO insights. Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. Howell said the commission has already appropriated money for the election and gotten additional funds from government COVID-impact grants and questioned whether the county needed more. They see it online that boom, it pops up red for a signature issue. Colorado Election Results. Visit The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.) at www.kansas.com. August 13 from 6 – 8 p.m. we co-hosted an event with Sedgwick County Young Democrats and the South Sedgwick County Democrat Club for 27 candidates. The mail goes through. To vote in-person in Kansas, voters need to have a photo ID. They can come into the office and sign it. “They can sign the photocopy in them. The Sedgwick County election office has processed over 68,000 applications for mail ballots for the November general election, and another 20,000 are waiting to be processed. We do pick up our boxes daily, some of them are visited several times a day because of volume, and they come back and just go into the process stream, just like all the other ones.”. The Sedgwick County Election Office has nearly 10,200 provisional ballots. That’s according to the county’s central services manager, Anna Meyerhoff, who gave county commissioners an update Tuesday on preparations for the November 3rd election. Outage Reporting. Then we quietly joked we might hit 70-75. “My only concern about this is who’s funding it,” he said. Sedgwick County is one of several … The machine also sorts out ballots if there’s a write-in candidate listed or a defect with the ballot that causes the machine not to be able to read it. We’re setting up more equipment. They’re non-partisan, they’re over in their space doing their thing, and they’re really good at what they do.”. Contact your county election office to find out when and where. “I know people are really concerned because they just weren’t seeing it turn green (one Voter View), but we have to do our due diligence.” Schnieders said, “We have to ensure that the numbers we’re putting out there is correct. Our goal as always is a safe, secure, fair election, and we will always do our due diligence, and we do appreciate the voters' patients.”. They have until November 13th to get the signature in.”. Lehman said she wouldn’t have accepted the grant if there were strings attached and vouched for the non-partisanship of the Center for Tech and Civic Life. We do have a visual inspection of those, and they do consider voter intent.” Schnieders said, “Our advanced board, they’ve been here for a long time. Office Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with the exception of holidays. At first, the petitioners were 47 registered voters short of placing the petition on the November ballot. Office Contact Information. “I send a letter out if it’s an unsigned envelope giving them a chance to cure it,” she said. 25-2806] Lehman said she’s confident she could run the election without the center’s money, but it would allow her to improve the voting process and pay for improvements that she wouldn’t have requested from the county’s pandemic-strained general fund budget. We have to make sure that the voter that signed that ballot is the voter who given that ballot, and if the signatures don’t match, we have to go to the next step on that. All rights reserved. Only county vote totals are reflected on this page and may not reflect overall race winners (check mark next to name) Go to race pages to see overall winners. Voters may register online at https://www.kdor.ks.gov/apps/voterreg/Default.aspx. We also have a 24 Hour Ballot Drop Box located in the parking lot behind the courthouse. Colorado requires citizens to register with the Secretary of State in order to vote in local, Colorado, and federal elections. Local Phone: 316-542-3131. Compare pay for popular roles and read about the team’s work-life balance. Welcome to the official Sedgwick County Government Facebook page. If you pulled results early, you’d get an error. “We can verify how many each dropbox is receiving and also what comes back through the mail,” said Schnieders. It’s the same process for us as it’s always been, just the new step is when we click “accept your signature” you can see it online. “I have received some very concerning e-mails from people and I think rightfully so,” he said. ? Copyright 2020 KWCH. The process mail-in ballots take once they’re received by the election office has become one of the most asked voters' questions, said Schnieders. 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