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.
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. Meyerhoff said the election office should have no problem meeting the demand for mail ballots.
Meyerhoff said the August primary election had a turnout of over 90,000 voters, and almost 44,000 were mail ballots. The turnout for the election was 29.6 percent, but 54 percent of the turnout was by mail and early in-person voting.
The mail ballots will be sent out starting October 14th, and applications will be taken through October 27th, but Meyerhoff said voters should not wait until the last day because they may not get their ballots through the mail in time.
The county will have 14 drop boxes for the general election, and Meyerhoff said they have been checked for security.
People with mail ballots will have four options: mailing the ballot, taking it to the election office in the historic courthouse, dropped off in a drop box, or it can be taken to a polling location on election day. There will be a drop box at each polling place on election day.
Advance voting at 16 satellite locations will begin October 27th and run through the 31st. Advance voting at the election office begins October 19th and ends on November 2nd. There will be an advance voting center at Intrust Bank Arena from October 19th through the 31st, and there will be up to 50 voting stations with a mix of paper and machine voting.
