To the editor:

I wish to reflect on how well the election “worked” in Kansas. I had to be abroad for two months, so I planned for absentee voting. Things did not go as I had imagined. A call in August to the Douglas County Elections Office was unanswered; I left a message. Receiving no answer, I sent an e-mail, answered on Sept. 4 with a request for an address to which to send the ballot; I answered the same day.

Abroad, however, nothing arrived, so I sent an e-mail on Oct. 23 (no answer). I called on Oct. 28, and received an e-mail stating that the only option was by facsimile, which I sent on the 29th. Nonetheless, on Nov. 4, I received an e-mail saying that my vote would not be registered if I did not supply additional information. I responded immediately, and I believe that my vote was registered.

I took every step to be able to vote, but the process would have failed had I not called and e-mailed multiple times. Had I been less in communication, as I often am, my vote would not have been registered. Moreover, I had to sign a statement waiving my right to a secret ballot.

Upon returning to Lawrence, I found that my ballot had been mailed to my home in Lawrence! Something is broken in this system. Let’s hope that an election in Kansas will not someday be decided by inept management of our elections.

A. Townsend Peterson,
Lawrence