A reminder to the losers and winners alike in Tuesday’s election: The clock is ticking on the deadline to take down those unsightly signs. The Wichita ordinance says that “all signs shall be removed within seven days following the election in which the candidate is elected to office or is eliminated from further participation in the election as a candidate.” Once again in this election, sadly, it proved too much to hope that all those candidates aspiring to high places in law enforcement or the justice system would follow the rules for political signs, especially the one prohibiting them on public property including rights of way.
As Kansas voters stated a preference for 100 percent conservative control of state government Tuesday, they also exhibited some disdain for the carpetbagging spurred by redistricting. True, a move from Lindsborg into a McPherson apartment in order to run didn’t hurt GOP Rep. Clark Shultz. But unofficial results left Rep. Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson, just seven votes ahead of her challenger in the wake of what had seemed like a far-fetched move into an old pew-filled church she and her husband planned to renovate. Voters rejected Gary Mason’s bid to unseat Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, after Mason made a last-minute move from Wichita to Park City to enable his run. And Rep. TerriLois Gregory, R-Baldwin City, lost badly after having relocated to Ottawa in hopes of staying in the House.
Before the polls closed Tuesday, Secretary of State Kris Kobach seemed pleased with the primary and especially the first statewide test of the voter-ID law he advocated. “We have had good reaction all over the state,” he told the Kansas City Star. Too bad Kobach didn’t cap off his tour of polling places in Wyandotte, Johnson and Shawnee counties with a trip to Sedgwick County, which saw the slowest, most-confusing election night in memory. In the first big election for his appointee, Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman, her office initially sowed mass confusion by reporting advance-ballot totals as if they reflected the vast majority of the precincts, then inexplicably took more than four hours to deliver final numbers. During the day, there also were some glitches with the new electronic poll books, just as there had been in Wichita’s February special election. Kobach and Lehman need to ensure they are ready for the Nov. 6 turnout, which will be far bigger than Tuesday’s.
A reminder to the losers and winners alike in Tuesday’s election: The clock is ticking on the deadline to take down those unsightly signs. The Wichita ordinance says that “all signs shall be removed within seven days following the election in which the candidate is elected to office or is eliminated from further participation in the election as a candidate.” Once again in this election, sadly, it proved too much to hope that all those candidates aspiring to high places in law enforcement or the justice system would follow the rules for political signs, especially the one prohibiting them on public property including rights of way.
