QUOTE
County eliminates 146 voting locations
BY BRENT D. WISTROM
The Wichita Eagle
ELECTIONS
If you vote on Election Day, you may find longer lines.
Sedgwick County has reduced its number of polling places from 208 to 62. It also has one-third fewer voting machines this year.
Democratic and Republican party leaders fear that fewer places to vote and fewer machines to vote on will mean a lower turnout.
To help voters, the county will make it easier to vote in advance, said Bill Gale, the Sedgwick County election commissioner.
The changes are being made to make polling places more accessible to disabled voters. The new polling places will be larger and better staffed, he said.
"We want to keep voting convenient," he said. "Hopefully, if people have to drive a little farther, that won't stop them."
Beatrice Adams, 48, said voting will be more difficult for her.
Like thousands of Wichitans, she recently got a voting card in the mail telling her that she had a new polling place -- farther away. With no car, that's a major obstacle, she said.
She doesn't want to vote in advance. She said she has more faith that her vote will be counted if she votes in person on Election Day.
"I just think that's really ironic," she said. "Especially with all the efforts in the country to make voting more accessible."
Reason for the change
The primary reason for the changes is the Help America Vote Act, which federal lawmakers passed in 2002 to make it easier for people with physical disabilities to vote, Gale said.
That meant counties across the nation needed new electronic voting machines and polling places with wheelchair ramps and wider doors.
The new law left Sedgwick County with fewer potential polling places, Gale said. Many of the old locations would have required temporary ramps, wider doors, new door handles and more parking.
Many Wichitans will see their usual voting spot move from down the street to up to 2 miles away. Every voter in Wichita will be within 2 miles of a polling place, according to the county's preliminary maps.
Many of the new spots in Wichita will be near major roads with bus stops, Gale said.
In addition to the new voter-registration cards voters received in the mail, the new list of polling places will be posted on the county's election Web site, as well as at www.kansas.com.
Sedgwick County voters also will have at least 14 satellite voting locations where they can vote before the election, he said. The locations, which are being finalized, will be open several days before Election Day, including a Saturday.
Mail-in ballots also are easier to obtain now that applications are available at Dillons stores and the county election office, Gale said. People can apply for them anytime, and the county will mail out a ballot 20 days before the election.
Obstacle to voting
No matter how well-thought-out the new locations are, fewer polls could lead to fewer voters, said Kelly Arnold, executive director of the Sedgwick County Republican Party.
There also are fewer of the new voting machines, which are more expensive than the old ones. There will now be one machine for every 421 registered voters, compared with one for every 280 voters two years ago.
"This is going to create longer lines," Arnold said. "And when you have lines where you were waiting five minutes and now you're waiting 45 minutes to two hours... it strongly discourages people from voting.
"People will see the line and say, 'Forget about it.' "
Arnold acknowledges that far more people are voting in advance now.
About 7,700 Sedgwick County residents voted in advance in 2004.
But he said he thinks early voting has not become popular enough to alleviate the long lines he expects with fewer polling places.
He said that he, like many, still likes to vote on Election Day.
"I just feel that's kind of the American way," he said. "I don't think we're ready yet for a whole bunch of people to do advance voting."
Mike Gaughan, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said he also is worried that people may be discouraged from voting.
"It's so critical that people feel empowered to participate," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure people have the opportunity to vote this fall."
Joe Aistrup, head of the political science department at Kansas State University, said that if lines are longer, it could discourage some voters.
It probably wouldn't change turnout by more than 5 percent, he said.
"But that could determine an election," he said.
Officials unaware
The consolidation was discussed last year when Gale also presented the idea of creating election centers.
In one county in Colorado, registered voters can vote at any polling place on Election Day.
Gale said commissioners were excited about the concept because of the high voter satisfaction reported from Larimer County in Colorado. However, that would take a change in state law, Gale said.
The consolidation of polling places went unnoticed by some elected officials.
Ben Sciortino, chairman of the County Commission, didn't know the consolidation was happening until a reporter called him Saturday. And several City Council members said they had heard about it but did not know why it was being done.
Several other counties in Kansas have already found or are in the process of finding new locations where almost anyone can vote unassisted, state election officials said.
Kansas already has fewer polling places per precinct than most states have, according to a 2005 Election Day Survey by the federal government's Election Assistance Commission.
But the state also has one of the lowest numbers of registered voters per polling place, with 835 people per site compared to the nation's average of 2,648.
Sciortino said he trusts that the county election office did what was necessary and that with proper notification and media attention the consolidation shouldn't cause any problems.
"We're going to try to accommodate voters the best we can," he said.
BY THE NUMBERS
POLLING PLACES
• Number of polling places in Sedgwick County
2005: 208
2006: 62
• Number of voting machines in the county:
2005: 8202006: 545
BY BRENT D. WISTROM
The Wichita Eagle
ELECTIONS
If you vote on Election Day, you may find longer lines.
Sedgwick County has reduced its number of polling places from 208 to 62. It also has one-third fewer voting machines this year.
Democratic and Republican party leaders fear that fewer places to vote and fewer machines to vote on will mean a lower turnout.
To help voters, the county will make it easier to vote in advance, said Bill Gale, the Sedgwick County election commissioner.
The changes are being made to make polling places more accessible to disabled voters. The new polling places will be larger and better staffed, he said.
"We want to keep voting convenient," he said. "Hopefully, if people have to drive a little farther, that won't stop them."
Beatrice Adams, 48, said voting will be more difficult for her.
Like thousands of Wichitans, she recently got a voting card in the mail telling her that she had a new polling place -- farther away. With no car, that's a major obstacle, she said.
She doesn't want to vote in advance. She said she has more faith that her vote will be counted if she votes in person on Election Day.
"I just think that's really ironic," she said. "Especially with all the efforts in the country to make voting more accessible."
Reason for the change
The primary reason for the changes is the Help America Vote Act, which federal lawmakers passed in 2002 to make it easier for people with physical disabilities to vote, Gale said.
That meant counties across the nation needed new electronic voting machines and polling places with wheelchair ramps and wider doors.
The new law left Sedgwick County with fewer potential polling places, Gale said. Many of the old locations would have required temporary ramps, wider doors, new door handles and more parking.
Many Wichitans will see their usual voting spot move from down the street to up to 2 miles away. Every voter in Wichita will be within 2 miles of a polling place, according to the county's preliminary maps.
Many of the new spots in Wichita will be near major roads with bus stops, Gale said.
In addition to the new voter-registration cards voters received in the mail, the new list of polling places will be posted on the county's election Web site, as well as at www.kansas.com.
Sedgwick County voters also will have at least 14 satellite voting locations where they can vote before the election, he said. The locations, which are being finalized, will be open several days before Election Day, including a Saturday.
Mail-in ballots also are easier to obtain now that applications are available at Dillons stores and the county election office, Gale said. People can apply for them anytime, and the county will mail out a ballot 20 days before the election.
Obstacle to voting
No matter how well-thought-out the new locations are, fewer polls could lead to fewer voters, said Kelly Arnold, executive director of the Sedgwick County Republican Party.
There also are fewer of the new voting machines, which are more expensive than the old ones. There will now be one machine for every 421 registered voters, compared with one for every 280 voters two years ago.
"This is going to create longer lines," Arnold said. "And when you have lines where you were waiting five minutes and now you're waiting 45 minutes to two hours... it strongly discourages people from voting.
"People will see the line and say, 'Forget about it.' "
Arnold acknowledges that far more people are voting in advance now.
About 7,700 Sedgwick County residents voted in advance in 2004.
But he said he thinks early voting has not become popular enough to alleviate the long lines he expects with fewer polling places.
He said that he, like many, still likes to vote on Election Day.
"I just feel that's kind of the American way," he said. "I don't think we're ready yet for a whole bunch of people to do advance voting."
Mike Gaughan, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said he also is worried that people may be discouraged from voting.
"It's so critical that people feel empowered to participate," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure people have the opportunity to vote this fall."
Joe Aistrup, head of the political science department at Kansas State University, said that if lines are longer, it could discourage some voters.
It probably wouldn't change turnout by more than 5 percent, he said.
"But that could determine an election," he said.
Officials unaware
The consolidation was discussed last year when Gale also presented the idea of creating election centers.
In one county in Colorado, registered voters can vote at any polling place on Election Day.
Gale said commissioners were excited about the concept because of the high voter satisfaction reported from Larimer County in Colorado. However, that would take a change in state law, Gale said.
The consolidation of polling places went unnoticed by some elected officials.
Ben Sciortino, chairman of the County Commission, didn't know the consolidation was happening until a reporter called him Saturday. And several City Council members said they had heard about it but did not know why it was being done.
Several other counties in Kansas have already found or are in the process of finding new locations where almost anyone can vote unassisted, state election officials said.
Kansas already has fewer polling places per precinct than most states have, according to a 2005 Election Day Survey by the federal government's Election Assistance Commission.
But the state also has one of the lowest numbers of registered voters per polling place, with 835 people per site compared to the nation's average of 2,648.
Sciortino said he trusts that the county election office did what was necessary and that with proper notification and media attention the consolidation shouldn't cause any problems.
"We're going to try to accommodate voters the best we can," he said.
BY THE NUMBERS
POLLING PLACES
• Number of polling places in Sedgwick County
2005: 208
2006: 62
• Number of voting machines in the county:
2005: 8202006: 545