Voters were trickling in at a slow but steady pace for today’s primary election, and County Clerk Karen Hartenbower was growing hopeful this morning that voter turnout by 7 p.m. would be better than the 15 to 18 percent she had earlier anticipated.
“Hopefully they’ll make me wrong,” she said. “I would love to be wrong.”
Hartenbower said she was encouraged that advance voting had picked in recent days. She earlier had hoped that 15 to 18 percent of the electorate would vote in the primary; however, she worried that this election could be as bad, or worse, than the 12 percent low-turnout record in April 2001.
As of noon Monday, when advance voting ended, 418 people had voted in the clerk’s office and 116 ballots had been mailed out.
“So the last few days we really had a lot better turnout,” Hartenbower said. “I think it was due to the forums and people wanting to hear from the candidates. I’m feeling better about it.”
When voter turnout is low, she said, “it makes each vote kind of expensive.”
Of the 21,000 voters registered in Lyon County, 16,241 are eligible to vote in this election. North Lyon County does not have a primary for its school board election.
“It’s the future of Emporia and the future of schools for their children, who they choose,” she said. “The city pays for it and South Lyon County pays for it. It has to be paid for and it’s their tax dollars they’re using to pay for this election.”
No major problems had surfaced by 8:30 this morning. Hartenbower said that only minor problems had been encountered with voting machines, and those were human error — a card had not been inserted far enough, for example — and easily remedied.
Hartenbower said there had been some confusion over the number of candidates that could be chosen on the ballots. That, she said, is dictated by Kansas statute.
“There is one point I want to get across, that ... Kansas law says that you can only vote for the same number in a primary as you’re going to (elect) in a general,” Hartenbower said.
The local city commission race has eight candidates named on the ballots.
“Six are going to advance to the general, but you can only vote for three,” she said.
In Southern Lyon County, where two positions have three candidates each, voters will be able to vote for only one person for each position.
Hartenbower said that only 42 voting machines will be involved in Tuesday night’s tally, instead of the 128 used in the last general election. Hand-counts of written ballots will be done Tuesday night and an estimated 50 to 100 provisional ballots will go to the canvassing board to determine whether the votes can be counted.
“Tuesday night’s not a final count. We won’t have official totals ’til Friday,” she said. “With fewer numbers voting, somebody could win by one vote.”
Twelve polling places are open, with nine in Emporia and one each in Olpe, Hartford and Neosho Rapids. They are:
• Precincts 1 and 2, St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 828 Commercial St.
• Precincts 3 and 4, W.L. White Auditorium, 521 Market St.
• Precincts 5 and 6, Emporia Recreation Center, 313 W. Fourth Ave.
• Precincts 7, 8 and 9, Emporia Public Library, 110 E. Sixth Ave.
• Precinct 10, Flint Hills Girl Scout Council office, 1200 Burlingame Road.
• Precincts 11, 12, and 13, Newman School of Nursing, 1127 Chestnut St.
• Precincts 14 and 15, Lincoln Village Clubhouse, 2502 Lincoln St.
• Precincts 16, 17, and 18, Presbyterian Church of Emporia, west campus (formerly Westminster Presbyterian Church), 1702 W. 15th Ave.
• Precincts 19 and 20, First Church of the Nazarene, 2931 W. 24th Ave.
• Precincts 28 and 30, Neosho Rapids City Building.
• Precincts 29 and 31, Knights of Columbus Hall, Olpe
• Precinct 32, Hartford Community Building.