Voters turning out in ‘steady’ numbers

Polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Today’s races for Lawrence City Commission, plus two bond issues for local schools and a statewide ballot question to ban same-sex marriage in Kansas could draw out 40 percent of Douglas County voters, says the county’s chief election official.

“From the reports we’re getting in, voting is pretty steady,” Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said shortly before noon today. “We’re running about average and above average in a couple of precincts.”

Shew said it’s hard to predict the turnout for a city and school board race. At the last city-school election in 2003, 33 percent of the registered voters turned out at the polls, he said.

“I think we’ll be above that number,” he said. “I think we’ll be close to 40 percent. But I also predicted 25 percent for the primary and it was 16 percent. So….” There are 66,926 registered voters in the county.

Besides city and school board races, voters will also find on their ballots questions ranging from Lawrence public school improvements to township road paving. A statewide ballot question proposing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is expected to boost turnout across Kansas.

Most Kansas University students traditionally ignore the city-school election. But there may be more of them voting today because of the gay marriage amendment issue, Shew said.

“I think the statewide constitutional question has drawn some interest that maybe some of the local issues would not have,” he said.

The polls will remain open until 7 tonight. That’s when election workers pack up the ballots and bring them back to the Douglas County Courthouse to be counted. Shew said election workers will first count advance ballots about 7:30 p.m.

He didn’t have a prediction for when all of the ballots from the 67 precinct will be counted.

“We’ll see how heavy the turnout will be,” he said.

The county clerk’s office also will post unofficial election results online tonight. Internet users can access the results by going to www.douglas-county.com/clerk/electionresults_office.asp.


For the latest election results from Lawrence and area cities, come back to this Web site after the polls close at 7 p.m. You can also get live results on Sunflower Broadband’s Channel 6 throughout the evening. And you can pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Journal-World for results and analysis of today’s election.