By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Some Hays voters learned this past week that they would cast their ballot in a new location this fall.
On Tuesday, Ellis Count Election Officer and Clerk Bobbi Dreiling informed the county commission of her plan to close two polling locations in Hays and combine them in a new location, giving the county nine total polling locations.
Dreiling is closing the polling location on 601 Main St., the Cottonwood Extension District Office in Hays and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 2900 Canal Blvd. in Hays.
Those voters, who were notified via a postcard in the mail recently of the location change, will now cast their ballots at Messiah Lutheran Church, 2000 Main St. in Hays.
Dreiling told the commission Tuesday, the decision to close the 601 Main St. location was due to the low voter turnout.
According to Dreiling, the average voter turnout in the last eight elections was less the 10 percent. Voter turnout at St. Michael’s Church averages between 25 and 35 percent.
There were 1,332 registered voters in Ward 1 Precincts 1 and 2, according to Dreiling’s statistics. That area covers residents who live south of Eighth St. from the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex east to Southridge Drive. That includes the Fort Hays State University campus.
The number of registered voters in that area was the smallest number of registered voters at polling sites in Ellis County.
Now combined with the registered voters in Ward 3, Precincts 1 and 2, who voted at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Messiah Lutheran Church will have the third most registered voters, at approximately 2,838.
Dreiling said the decision to no longer use St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was an effort to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Because voters that can't climb three stairs vote downstairs, and with the new machines that produce a (paper) ballot, they're not able to go up the stairs to deposit their ballots,” Dreiling said. “So, it's given to a poll worker, and that's kind of giving up voter privacy.”
While looking for a new location, Dreiling said she was contacted by the American Democracy Project at Fort Hays State about placing a polling location on the FHSU Campus.
Dreiling told the commission they researched two possible locations on campus. The first was a location upstairs in the student union.
But she said both she and the students identified issues with the location, including the distance of the location where voters would cast their ballot and the parking lot.
“It was not a great polling location, especially for our elderly,” Dreiling said.
Voters would have had to cross a street, go up two stories and walk down a hallway just to get to the polling location.
They also looked at Gross Memorial Coliseum as a potential location, but there were concerns about the security of polling equipment leading up to the election and the availability of the coliseum in the event of a special election.
“Obviously, we had a special election last year and when I told them, if I call you 60 days out, can you guarantee me this place at that time, they said no, they could not guarantee me,” Dreiling said.
Dreiling said one of the common misconceptions is that if there is a polling location on campus, any student or staff member would be allowed to vote on campus.
“You’ve got to take into consideration the students that do not live on campus, and they don't live in Ward 1, Precinct 1 and 2, they can't vote on campus. Neither can any faculty that does not live in that area,” Dreiling said. “So, as much as I would love to accommodate the students, I just found that it wasn't feasible for us since we do have early voting right here at the admin center (718 Main St.). And not only do we have early voting, we also have advanced mail voting, and then Election Day voting.”
Tuesday, Ellis County Commissioner Michael Berges said moving a polling location to campus and having residents that live as far away from campus as 37th Street to the north of 32nd Street and Vine Street to the east puts a burden on those residents.
“So, to tell 8,000 people that live in their residences there, that they need to drive down to campus, find parking on campus, even if it's at Gross Memorial that has tons of parking, that they need to navigate campus when students should be able to navigate to Main Street and go vote. I just think that's not that difficult thing,” Berges said.
Berges added, “Students are students, they have jobs, everything. Adults also have jobs. I have kids that have sports. I’ve got to get them to things. My wife works. So, if it's important to go vote, you will find a way to go vote.”
Berges also echoed Dreiling’s statement that even though you are a student, that does not mean that you would necessarily vote on campus.
“If you're a student, and you live (on) Ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th Street, which is a lot of student apartments and those kinds of things, you're in Ward 2 anyway, you're going to go vote at the VFW.”
Dreiling said in her response to statements that she needs to continue to make elections free and fair in Ellis County and that her office continues to focus on the three ways voters could cast their ballots.
“I feel like, for the 10 years I've been here, I have done free and fair elections. One of the things that kind of make a free and fair election is accessible voting for voters. I feel like we offer that with early voting, advanced mail, voting and polling site, Election Day voting,” Dreiling said.
She said she would continue to discuss possible locations with the American Democracy Project and students on campus. She also urged those with concerns to reach out to her office, and they will continue those discussions.
The next election in Ellis County will be the city and school elections on Nov. 7.
You can find information on that election, including deadlines, HERE.