Lyon County Election Officer Amie Jones says the upcoming general election could see a “special question” heavy ballot in November.
Jones’ comments came during a wrap-up of the primary election held last week as part of an appearance on KVOE’s Morning Show Tuesday. During that time, Jones announced that the official vote canvass was recently completed and the official voter turnout was right at 31 percent.
Jones says she was hoping for a bigger turnout; however, she was very pleased with how the election unfolded from a procedural standpoint.
With the primary complete, attention shifts to the general election on November 3, with Jones noting there are some important dates that residents need to keep in mind in the coming weeks.
As mentioned earlier, Jones feels the November ballot could be very lengthy with several notable state positions up for election along with two potential bond questions, one for updates to USD 251 North Lyon County facilities and the other related to a quarter-cent sales tax that could, if approved, fund the construction of a new Emporia Recreation Center as well as updates to the Lee Beran Recreation Center. Emporia City Commissioners will be considering the sales tax question at their next regular meeting on August 19th.
On top of that, voters could also consider a pair of petition questions thanks to the efforts of Emporia Neighbors United, who submitted two petitions to the city last month, one seeking to ban high-impact data centers within the Emporia City limits for a period of 10 years and the other related to battery energy storage systems.
The Lyon County Clerk’s Office has verified the petition related to data centers and was recently sent off to Lyon County District Court for a “Declaratory Judgment.” As for the petition related to battery storage systems, signatures are still under review by Jones’ office and were briefly paused due to the primary election.
Jones tells KVOE News current plans are to have the petition review completed either by or before Friday of this week. Jones did reiterate that the verification of signatures on the petition is simply to ensure the petition can be considered; it will not mean, however, the petition will automatically make it to the November ballot.
For questions or more information on the upcoming election or other matters, visit LyonCountyks.gov.
