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Photo by Nicole Kelley

Bonner Springs residents cast their votes at the Bonner Springs Community Center, 200 E. Third, Tuesday afternoon. Poll workers said the line at the polling site was quite long at 7 a.m. this morning.

Voter turnout on Election Day did not measure up to the record-breaking numbers predicted by a local elections official.

Bruce Newby, Wyandotte County election commissioner, said that 61.29 percent of registered voters in the county showed up at the polls, which only slightly surpasses the 60.12 percent in 2004 and the 60.71 percent in 2000. The 2008 numbers might rise some, Newby said, once provisional ballots are counted.

“It surprised me,” Newby said, considering that weeks earlier he had predicted a turnout of 70 to 75 percent. “With all the excitement and energy generated for this election I was disappointed it was lower than expected.”

On a more local level, however, Newby said that all but one of Bonner Springs’ five polling sites saw a higher voter turnout than the countywide average. At 7 a.m. on Tuesday, long lines formed at the Community Center and Methodist Church polling sites. Following that initial rush, poll workers had a slow day as the remaining voters trickled in during polling hours.

Newby said this was true of most polling sites throughout the county.

“The turnout for the morning was big,” Newby said. “But that afternoon rush after work we expected never materialized.”

There were 91,083 registered voters throughout Wyandotte County, with only 55,885 actually casting votes. Of those ballots, 11,288 were sent through mail and 7,323 were through advance voting at the election office.

“There was a healthy turnout for advance voting,” Newby said of 18,611 advanced votes that were cast. “It was an all-time record, which may have had an impact on why (Election Day) turnout was not as great.”

Throughout Tuesday, Newby said, polling sites ran smoothly with few problems. While he didn’t expect to get away problem-free, Newby said he always prepares for the worst.

The most common mishap in the county was voters not knowing their correct voting site. Newby said it happens often when someone loses or throws away their registration card, but the election office has measures to point those people in the right direction.

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