By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Registered voters in Ellis County will start seeing ballots for a proposed countywide sales tax in their mailboxes.
Ellis County Election Officer and Clerk Donna Maskus said the ballots went out to 16,709 registered voters Friday.
Contained inside the envelope that all voters will receive in the mail is the ballot, ballot instructions and the return envelope.
The ballot contains the two questions. The first asks the voter if they support is a quarter-cent countywide sales tax to finance health care services in Ellis County. The second asks the voter is they support a general sales tax to finance general government services.
You can see a sample ballot below:
Once you have filled out your ballot you fold it and place it in the envelope addressed to the Ellis County Election Officer (see below).
After you have sealed the envelope, you must sign the back of it.
Maskus said it is very important that the voter sign the back of the envelope (see below).
“There’s a unique little arrow there that says, 'sign here,' ” Maskus said. “We do have to have the voter’s signature there, and the date.”
The clerk’s office will check those signatures against the voter’s signature on file through the voter registration process. If the signatures do not match, they will reach out to the voter through a card in the mail, and the voter will have to then verify their signature.
If the signatures do not match or if there is no signature on the envelope, workers will not open the envelope and the vote will not be counted.
The ballots are due back in the county clerk’s office by noon April 7. Maskus said voters can drop them in the mail or by their office at 718 Main in Hays. Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
If you do not receive a ballot and believe you should have, Maskus said you can check voter registration status through voteks.org or contact the clerk’s office at 785-628-9410.