Election office getting people ready to vote in November

Ballots will look different across the state. Questions can include seats on school boards and city councils, or new tax rates.

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – November’s general election is quickly approaching. If you want to vote this year, you have until October 15 to get registered.

Ballots will look different across the state. Questions can include seats on school boards and city councils, or new tax rates. Some cities, including the state’s largest, Wichita, will be voting for mayor.

But not everyone is focused on voting this year.

“I think that people just get busy with their lives,” said Shawnee County Election Commissioner Andrew Howell. “That’s why we try to remind people as you’re getting close to election day, for any election, we always try to make a push.”

For a presidential year in Shawnee County, more than 70 percent of registered voters turn out to vote, while that number drops to around 20 percent in odd-numbered years.

“We’ve been doing a number of registration events, we try to do it a month, two months before an election day because then people are a little more focused that there’s an election coming,” Howell said.

Election office workers said more people seem to be invested this year.

“In the past, we have been a little less busy, but it seems like people are more interested in what’s going on,” said Michelle Blodgett, voter registration clerk in Shawnee County.

Blodgett is helping out with the voter registration drive at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.

“Ask them if they’re registered, we can check right here,” said Blodgett. “If there’s anything they want to change, political affiliation, if they’ve moved, name changes, just fill out the form and take it back to the office.”

The 2019 general election is November 5.

All Kansas voters will see one question that’s the same for everyone, it’s a constitutional amendment to change how the Census counts military and college students in the state.