Time to stop worrying about Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Bill Gale’s deep cuts two years ago in the number of polling places. According to a local SurveyUSA poll taken on Election Day for KWCH, Channel 12, 89 percent of voters said they waited less than one hour at the polls, and 69 percent said they waited less than 10 minutes. Fortunately, many voters also took Gale’s advice to take advantage of early voting options. Gale said last week that about 111,200 people voted before Election Day in Sedgwick County, either by mail or in person. That’s more than 57 percent of the total county vote of 194,688, and dramatically more than the 24,600 who cast early votes in 2004.
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14 Comments
Thanks Bill, for making voting convenient for working people. Bill Gale for Governor!
More or less FORCED to vote by mail since the idiot Gale moved my polling place to a distant church. We need MORE polling places, not fewer. Run as this state is by cons, I am not confident my mail in ballot even counted.
Blue -Run as this state is by cons, I am not confident my mail in ballot even counted.
I think you make a good point. Look at Alaska where the early and absentee vote is STILL being counted 2 WEEKS after the election. If it wasn’t close, would they count it at all?
Has Wichita’s record early vote been counted?
Same in Minnesoat. They are still counting that vote and getting ready for a mandatory RECOUNT. Two states (ALaska and Minnesota) where we know that the early vote wasn’t counted until long after election day.
Bill Gale complied with legal standards by not continuing to use polling places that are not accessible to the disabled. His support and leadership for advance and mail in voting helped the whole process go smoothly. We have always been able to trust Bill Gale. thank goodness.
I agree with LonnythePlumber. Bill Gale had the tough job of putting into practical use what the new legal standards were for polling places. This is when the rubber meets the road – not everyone will be happy with the outcome – no matter what side of the political fence they are on.
I think Bill Gale did a great job in providing many opportunities for everyone to vote. As for being sure my mailed ballot was counted, how do you know your ballot is counted by the machine? Weren’t there many questions about the vote in 2004 about the Diebold machines being accurate?
BlueJay – you can request your voting history. There is a cost attached to it. You can also check with local republican and democrat parties. They purchase the information.
Sedgwick County advance votes have been counted. The last of the advance and the provisionals were counted last Monday.
Missouri is one of the few states that still expects voters to line up on election day. My relatives there said it was a mess, especially in the metropolitan areas like KC ad St. Louis! In order to have the opportunity to vote in advance you must prove the need and meet their requirements. If something unexpected kept you from the polls on that one day, you were shot outta luck.
I like having voting more convenient, offering more options. I think Kansas is doing good! Voting by mail for convenience alone with no other test, advance voting locations open even on weekends, or the option of waiting until election day makes our state much more progressive and considerate of her voters than states like Missouri.
Bill was in a sort of catch-22 with ADA requirements and also limted budgets. It makes good sense to stretch the use of his limited physical equipment by using advance voting etc. I’d like to see that done even more. One change I would consider adding would be specific days at larger workplaces with technology used to allow a person to vote in one location for a princinct across the county.
Don’t that already have and use that technology in the advance voting locations, Ben?
Yes – I would extend to election day. Like I said – Bill has done a good job.
When talking Kansas political musical chairs, don’t count out Kansas congressman from the Johnson County congressional district, Dennis Moore. He’s a Democrat and apparently from Wichita because I believe his father was once Sedgwick County prosecuting attorney. In Johnson County, Dennis Moore also once served as prosecuting attorney. He is very popular with voters up there.
My point is Dennis Moore could probably run for Kansas U.S. Senator. As someone said up thread, this would more evenly balance out the U.S. Senators from Kansas geographically.
I personally don’t think a politician who has been a U.S. Senator will be satisfied to dirty his hands by moving to Topeka to serve as Governor. Plus in Kansas, its a big job to run for a state wide office traveling around to the hundreds of small towns in every corner of the state. I’ve had several friends try this and they are pretty well tuckered out by the time the elections take place.
Stop it JWink! If I start agreeing with you any more I’ll have to stop talking to myself. HA.
LonniethePlumber: I doubt if we agree on city council people … or on the unneeded downtown arena … or on the ill-planned airplane manufacturing school at Jabara airport.
But I have wondered who you are. I have thought you are Ray Frederick, president of WIBA. Perhaps you sit with him at the back of the auditorium at City Council meetings.
If I was asked, I would say I am moderate on political views, now generally voting on the man/woman and issues rather than the political party. On tax issues, however, I am super conservative and get sick to my stomach at local politicians who vote vast amounts of our taxes for their idiotic, wrong-headed recreational “visions” such as for the downtown ice hockey arena.
Somehow good people who express conservative feelings about spending taxes befoe election … come to think of themselves as “intellectual visionaries” headed to the “oval office” once elected.
Need I name names?
“From the backs of hard working, toiling, sweating hard-pressed taxpayers according to their god-given abilities … to the grubby little paws OF THE FEW according to their perceived own needs regardless of any god-given abilities.” Communist creed.
Agreed Lonnie the Plumber?