To say that Lyon County Election Officer Amie Jones and her crack staff of 4 employees have been busier than normal this election cycle would be an understatement.
Jones is leading the effort to adjust operations now that the 3-day grace period for mail ballots to be counted, if they are postmarked by Election Day on Aug 4 and get to the Election Office by Aug 7 — following last week’s temporary injunction from Douglas County Judge Carl Folsom. On KVOE’s Newsmaker segment Monday, Jones said there was some guidance already in hand from the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office.
Other aspects of the ruling are still under review.
With the situation in flux, Jones is advising mail ballot voters to get things done as soon as possible.
Dropboxes are now available to the public on a 24/7 basis through 7 pm Aug 4. Those are located near the northwest corner of the Courthouse as well as the public parking lot immediately east of the Lyon County Law Enforcement Center and immediately south of White Auditorium.
This also happens to overlap the signature verification process beginning late last week after Emporia Neighbors United submitted its second petition packet designed to stop Emporia’s move towards a possible data center or have two questions on the general election ballot Nov 3. Jones says there are two people with prior experience dealing with petitions, so those employees are leading the verification effort.
The verification process may not end in time for Emporia Neighbors United to present the petitions to city commissioners for the meeting Wednesday, which already has policy decisions on zoning overlays, property zoning changes, zoning applications and water/wastewater policy for large-volume users.
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For people who plan to vote in person at the Lyon County Election Office, the deadline is noon Aug 3. In-office voting continues from 8 am to 5 pm this week and next, with Aug 3 voting from 8 am to noon. The deadline to request a mail ballot is July 28.
3 pm Saturday: Offsite voter event ends at Fairgrounds Anderson Building
Lyon County Election Officer Amie Jones is pleased with the final turnout for the county’s offsite voter opportunity.
Just under 320 people cast their ballots between Wednesday and Saturday at the Fairgrounds Anderson Building.
Offsite voting ends right before in-person voting begins inside the Lyon County Courthouse. Jones says the Anderson Building event is a good lead-in to operations at the Election Office through noon Aug 3.
The offsite vote availability overlapped two unplanned activities late last week. First was the decision by Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom to issue a temporary injunction against Senate Bill 4, the law ending the 3-day grace period for mail ballots to return and be counted after a given Election Day. Current guidance from the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office updating website language to reflect the grace period has been reinstated while leaving the language on outgoing advance mail ballots and ballot envelopes unchanged.
Second: The signature validation process for Emporia Neighbors United’s second petition designed to either halt Emporia’s data center process for a decade upon City Commission affirmation or put two related questions, one on data centers and another on battery energy storage systems, on the Nov 3 ballot. Jones says she plans to have the signatures validated in a “timely manner” after over 1,800 signatures were delivered earlier this week (last week) to the Emporia City Clerk’s Office. The first effort had over 1,300 signatures but all the votes were deemed invalid because of a paperwork error from petition circulators.
Jones will be on KVOE’s Newsmaker segment at 7:20 am Monday to discuss the mail ballot procedures, including the upcoming deadline to request ballots, as well as Election Office hours and an update on the petition signature process.
