This is a busy week for the Lyon County Election Office and an important one for county voters.
Voter registration ends at 5 pm Tuesday. Residents need to go to the Lyon County Courthouse or go online to www.voteks.org to register.
After that, requested mail ballots go out to voters starting Wednesday. On KVOE’s Talk of Emporia late last week, County Clerk Tammy Vopat says interest in the mail ballots has far exceeded other elections due to concerns about coronavirus.
To put that in perspective, that’s about 10 percent of Lyon County’s total population and about 15 percent of the county’s registered voter average of around 20,000 people.
There have been a lot of concerns — in Lyon County and elsewhere — about the mail ballot process giving more opportunities for voter fraud, even though the option has been in place for decades and is used by military service personnel. Vopat says the Election Office does what it can to ward off any hint of election fraud.
Saturday will see an offsite voter election event from 8 am to 1 pm at Flinthills Mall. Vopat says mask use is highly encouraged and there will be social distancing signage in place.
In addition to the activities through the Lyon County Election Office, KVOE News begins its Candidate Forums on Tuesday. This week is reserved for the two Kansas House positions representing Lyon County that are up for election. On Tuesday, we’ll have 76th District Representative Eric Smith and challenger Robert Harmon join us. On Thursday, the guests are 51st District Representative Ron Highland and challenger Gary Schuetz. Both programs are at 10:06 am on 4 KVOE, 96.9 FM and KVOE.com.
The primary election is Aug. 4. Traditional in-office advance voting starts July 20 and ends at noon Aug. 3. People can check their voter registration status by going online to www.myvoteinfo.voteks.org/voterview. Full election coverage will take place on KVOE and KVOE.com.
