photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County elections office at 711 W. 23rd St. is pictured Monday, Oct. 31, 2022.

While advance voting has closed, Douglas County voters will have one last chance to cast a ballot in the upcoming primary election on Tuesday.

County residents will be able to vote at in-person polling locations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. A voter can look up their polling location by utilizing the Douglas County Elections Office’s polling place lookup tool at https://www.dgcoks.gov/pollingplaces. All voters need to bring a photo ID to vote in-person.

While the deadline to register to vote in the primary election has already passed, voter registration will reopen following the election and remain open through Tuesday, Oct. 13 for voters who want to participate in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

For those who still have mail ballots, voters are encouraged to put ballots in drop boxes to be counted on time. The drop boxes where you can directly drop off your mail ballot are located at: The Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.; The Douglas County Treasurer’s Sixth Street office, 2601 W. Sixth St.; The County Election Office, 711 W. 23rd St.; and the Golf Course Superintendents Building, 1421 Research Park Dr.

For county residents outside of Lawrence, voters can drop off their ballots at Baldwin City Hall, 803 Eighth St. in Baldwin City; Eudora City Hall, 4 East Seventh St. in Eudora and Lecompton City Hall, 327 Elmore St. in Lecompton.

The drop boxes will be closed at 7 p.m. on Election Day, the same time that the polls close.

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Tuesday’s primary will decide some key races for two seats on the Douglas County Commission. In District 1, incumbent Democrat Patrick Kelly, will face a primary challenger, Milton Scott. In District 4, incumbent Democrat Gene Dorsey will face a primary challenge from Ethan Spurling. The winners in these two primaries will be running unopposed in the general election.

The other seat up for the election is for District 5. Incumbent Erica Anderson, a Democrat, does not face a primary challenger, but she will face Libertarian candidate Kirsten Kuhn in the general election.

In addition, Kansas ballots will ask a question that – if voters approve it – would change the way justices are selected for the Kansas Supreme Court, as the Journal-World reported. Justices are currently nominated by a panel of attorneys and laypeople and then chosen by the governor, but the ballot question asks whether Kansas voters should elect them directly instead.

Supporters of the amendment have said that the current process prioritizes the voices of attorneys above those of other Kansans, and that other Kansans should have more of a say in the selection process. Meanwhile, opponents say the amendment is an attempt to politicize the court and would allow campaign money and the wishes of constituents to undermine the judiciary’s independence.

Voters can gather additional information about the state and federal races by reading the Journal-World’s primary election guide.