Early returns

It was an early night for Douglas County vote-counters.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew and his staff had the last results tallied by 8:35 p.m. Tuesday night, which is several hours earlier than in past elections.

Shew said his department implemented a new policy of counting the advance ballots cast in the race during the day rather than waiting for the polls to close at 7 p.m. That meant 800 votes already were counted by the time the polls closed.

Shew also said the 14 percent voter turnout – about 8,000 voters – sped up the process. Shew said he expected a significantly higher voter turnout for the April 3 general election, in part because Lawrence school board candidates will be on the ballot.

Looking for issues

Several Lawrence voters on Tuesday said they still were looking for a hot-button issue to emerge in this year’s election.

“I’m just here because people should go vote,” said Ruth Hagerman, who was voting at Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship.

Mike Branden, who was voting at Lawrence Public Library, said he also wasn’t driven to the polls by any single issue. But he said he did think the candidates needed to do a better job of getting specific about what they stand for.

“I would like to hear their positions on the issues more than I have so far,” Branden said.

Some voters, though, did have some specifics issues on their mind. Janice McClure, who was voting at the Free Methodist Church, said she wanted a commission that would ensure that property taxes would not increase, and commissioners who would focus on boosting the community’s industrial and commercial tax base.