Lawrence polling places mostly empty for primary

Ho-hum.

So few voters turned out in Douglas County that some poll workers passed the time Tuesday thumbing novels or deciphering crossword puzzles.

A slow day at the polls provides ample reading opportunities for precinct workers. From left, Isabelle Schaake, poll judge, Charlotte Sparkes, clerk, and Elizabeth Brooker, supervisor, progress through a mystery and two historical fiction books while waiting for voters Tuesday at Hillcrest School.

“I brought a deck of cards,” said John Hope, an election volunteer at the Assembly of God Church polling station. “I can play a little solitaire.”

Low turnout had been forecast by state and local election officials, and the predictions proved true.

In Douglas County, 10,075 of 51,414 registered voters took the trouble to mark ballots.

The 20 percent turnout fell short of Douglas County’s voting activity in the last gubernatorial primary, when 26 percent of registered voters took part.

At Plymouth Congregational Church, just 23 of 518 voters cast ballots. At the American Legion, 259 of 960 voters recorded their preferences.

Mary Hope, John’s wife, occupied herself with a book of crossword puzzles. She had a partial explanation for the slow day: Statewide office seekers on the Democratic ticket had no opponents.

“Democrats say there isn’t anything to vote for,” Mary Hope said.

But there were other explanations for the general lack of interest, including the heat, the lack of familiarity with the candidates, and the heavy dose of negative TV ads voters were inundated with as the clock ran out on the campaigns.

Jason Kennedy, a 24-year-old construction worker in Lawrence, said he was part of the political funk.

“Forget it,” he said when asked whether he’d done his part for democracy. “I don’t know any of the candidates. I’ve never really felt my vote counted.”

One well-known local, state Sen. Sandy Praeger, had good reason to grab a ballot at Drury Place, a retirement home on St. Andrews Drive. The Republican candidate for Kansas insurance commissioner went there to slip behind a red, white and blue curtain and darken the oval next to her own name.

“I just hope my husband and I don’t cancel each other out,” joked Praeger, well-tanned from riding in parades throughout the state.

At the East Lawrence Center, a potential voter was actually turned away.

Cornell University student Dmitry Meyerson, 19, of Lawrence failed to register to vote. That detail foiled his plan to subvert the GOP.

“I was thinking I could vote for the most right-wing candidate. It might undermine them,” he said.

‘Negative campaigning’

Poll workers all over the city from Coffin Sports Complex at Haskell Indian Nations University to the American Legion to Clinton Parkway Assembly of God Church concentrated on favorite hobbies during unusually long voting lulls.

Reading novels was a popular choice among election workers.

New York School poll worker Peggy Baker made a big dent in a culinary mystery, “Slice and Dice.” By the afternoon, she said, only 32 of that precinct’s 438 registered voters had stopped by.

It was much the same story elsewhere at city precincts.

Die-hard voters expressed anger that politicians hadn’t addressed substantive issues this summer.

“It’s just been negative campaigning,” said Erv Hodges, former Lawrence mayor. “The issues haven’t been addressed. The deficit? Education?”

At the Lawrence High School Annex, attorney Jonathan Becker and museum manager Caleb Morse tracked the pulse of the electorate. They recorded votes from 70 of 781 registered voters by late afternoon. Only 17 were Democrats and fewer than five were under 30 years of age, Morse said.

“It’s a faint pulse,” Becker said. “I agreed with (Secretary of State) Ron Thornburgh’s statement. It puts a premium value on those who do vote.”

That’s precisely the spin Democrat Casey Tedrow, 20, put on the election.

“If I want to complain, I better vote,” she said. “How can people think their vote does not count?”

Republican John Scanlan, a retired construction company owner, said voting was a right he would never abandon. He just wished there was one more oval on his ballot.

“They missed one thing,” he said. “They need one saying, ‘None of the above.'”