Five polling places to be open Tuesday in Wyandotte County; regular polling places change

Advance voting remains open until 7 p.m. Monday at the election office, 850 State Ave.

Election Commissioner Bruce Newby said because of the winter storm, he has had to consolidate the 20 polling places to five only on Tuesday.

The five polling places:

• Election office, 850 State Ave.;
• Kansas National Guard Armory, 120 S. 20th;
• Risen Lamb Church of the Nazarene,  5301 Metropolitan Ave.
• Open Door Baptist Church, 3033 N. 103rd Terrace (near Leavenworth Road);
• Edwardsville Community Center, 696 S. 3rd St., Edwardsville, Kan.

The five polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. No other polling places are open on Tuesday.

If possible, voters are urged to vote on Monday at the election office at 850 State Ave. to lessen any risk of being out in the winter storm.

Newby said state law does not allow him to cancel or postpone an election because of the weather. A voter on Tuesday may go to any of the five voting locations, he said.

On Tuesday, the primary voting method will be by touch-screen voting because of technological reasons, he said.

He said a touch-screen can be set up to vote countywide, but Accu-vote, used with the paper ballots, can only be programmed for a limited number of ballots. He cannot get enough Accu-votes to emergency locations to do a ballot reading.

Those who insist on a paper ballot will cast a provisional ballot, he said. These are administrative procedures to make sure voters cast their vote on the correct ballots, he added.

On the primary election ballot are five mayoral candidates, plus candidates in the 2nd District at large, 1st District and 8th District Unified Government Commission.

Newby said there were some pretty good lines of voters earlier today at the election office for advance voting, and he would expect today's turnout to be over 300 or 400, without having an actual count at this time.

Advance voting through last Friday was not very heavy, with a total of 1,856 voting, he said. Mail ballots totaled 1,663 and there were 193 voting in the office by last Friday.

"We're required by law to do the election regardless of the weather, and there isn't any way out of it," he said. "Nobody can cancel or postpone it."

Residents who vote on Tuesday should try to go to the closest polling place to their home, or closest to their work if they have to work on Tuesday, he said, but they can vote at any of the five locations.

Staff will be clearing off the parking lots and sidewalks at the polling places on Tuesday.

One of the reasons for only five polling places Tuesday is that it is difficult to get enough election workers to the polls, he said. Not everyone has four-wheel drive.

It's possible that some election workers may have to stay overnight at the election office Monday night because of the storm, he added.

For more information, call the Wyandotte County election office at 913-573-8500.