BonnerSprings.com

With less than a week to go before Nov. 4, the Wyandotte County Elections Office and local candidates are gearing up.

With a record turnout expected, Elections Commissioner Bruce Newby said he’s recruited more than 585 Election Day volunteers, “and I hope to use every last one of them.”

Already the advance voting numbers appear set to dwarf those of the 2004 election.

As of Friday, the Wyandotte County Elections Office had received 14,217 applications to request advance voting, while a total of 10,476 advance ballots were cast in the 2004 election.

Newby said registration numbers were also up this year from the last presidential election, though he didn’t have an exact count. In 2004 there were 89,207 registered voters in Wyandotte County, he said, and this year “I’m pretty sure at this point there are over 90,000.”

The excitement over this presidential election has meant more work for his office, Newby said.

“We’ve been really busy,” he said. “I think the candidates have captured the imagination of the voters and they’re very interested in making sure their voice is heard.”

In view of the expected large turnout on Election Day, Newby said, “we’re asking people to be patient” if they find themselves waiting in long lines.

Beyond that, Newby advises voters to “know where to go.”

For those in doubt, polling places can be found by going to the Chieftain’s Web site at bonnersprings.com, or the VoterView site, at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/.

For local candidates, their journey will be capped by a week of campaigning, some of it conventional, and some of it not.

On Friday, Steve Fitzgerald, Republican candidate for the Kansas Senate 5th District, was standing in front of Christi’s on Kansas Highway 7 near Interstate 70 with a sign, waving at passing drivers.

“Not too many are honking,” he said, which he attributed to it being Friday afternoon.

Also figuring in his last-week campaigning, Fitzgerald, a Leavenworth businessman said, “doing door-to-door literature drops, phone calls, mailers.”

Fitzgerald’s Democratic opponent, Kelly Kultala, said she was also going door-to-door and placing signs in yards.

“We’ve been working pretty hard for five months,” Kultala said. “We’ve got ads in the newspapers and attending events.”

Both she and Fitzgerald attended a Lansing-Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce forum for candidates last week.

One candidate who has shifted gears in the last week is Steve Roberts, the independent candidate for Kansas Board of Education District 2 seat.

“I’m doing less canvassing by foot and more by e-mail,” said Roberts. “I’m asking friends to e-mail their friends.”

Roberts said he had “no genuine events” planned.

“I sort of let my volunteer canvassers off the hook,” he said. “I had plans to do a big Election Day push, but with early voting and a plethora of signs, we just decided to go with e-mail.”

Roberts’ Republican opponent, Mary C. Ralstin, said she was “putting out ‘palm cards,’” which she described as small cards listing her vital statistics and leadership experience.

Also, Ralstin said, she was putting out yard signs and had attended a National Education Association event Monday night.

Advance voting applications can be downloaded from the Elections office Web site at wycokck.org/election. Advance voting in person at the Elections Office, 850 State Ave., ends at noon, Nov. 3. Otherwise, advance voting ballots must be received by 7 p.m. Nov. 4. They may be mailed to the Elections Office, 850 State Ave., Kansas City, KS 66101 or sent by fax to (913) 573-8580.

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