By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A Democratic write-in candidate for Ellis County Clerk will not be on the general election ballot in November.
Local attorney John Bird, who spoke on behalf of write-in candidate Laura Allen, suggested at the canvas meeting Thursday night the law on write-in candidates should be interpreted as any candidate in the primary receiving 5 percent or more of their own party should be placed on the general election ballot.
County Clerk Donna Maskus said she had already checked with the Kansas Secretary of State's Office, which stated a write-in candidate would need votes equal to 5 percent of all registered voters to automatically be placed on the general election ballot.
The canvas board agreed Thursday night to delay certifying the primary election results until Maskus could confirm the intent of the law with the Secretary of State's Office.
The Secretary State's Office confirmed Friday morning the law indicated write-in candidates need a vote equal to 5 percent of all registered voters to be placed on the general election ballot, Maskus said.
Ellis County had 17,996 registered voters as of July, according to the clerk's office. Allen would have needed 910 votes to qualify for the general election ballot. She received 224 write-in votes in the primary.
There were 3,873 registered Democrats in the county as of July.
Allen said Friday afternoon she did not want to comment on the election. She said Bird was still conferring with the Secretary of State's Office.
Bobbi Dreiling, Republican candidate for the County Clerk position and current County Clerk deputy, was at the canvas meeting Thursday night, but said she did want comment on Bird's request.
Maskus reported Thursday 6,831 ballots were cast in the primary, a 37.96 percent voter turnout rate. Maskus said she was pleased with the turnout.
Applications for mail-in ballots were sent out to all Ellis County registered voters this spring for both the primary and general elections in lieu of COVID-19 pandemic.
Maskus reported mail-in balloting was up, with 2,132 mail-in ballots cast in the primary. Another 697 people advance voted in-person at the County Clerk's Office.
Fifty-six provisional ballots were cast in the primary. Forty-one of those ballots were accepted. Most of the accepted ballots involved issues with address changes, seven ballots involved mail-in ballots that were requested but not received, three ballots involved name changes, and one person was mistakenly removed from the voter roles.
Of the 15 ballots that were not counted, 11 were people were not registered to vote in Ellis County. Four people did not present proper ID at the polls and failed to present ID to the Clerk's Office prior to the canvas.
The Ellis County canvas board will meet again before the regular Ellis County Commission meeting at 5 p.m. Monday night at the Ellis Administrative Center to vote on final certification of the eleciton.
See the unofficial Ellis County primary results by clicking here.