The Barton County Courthouse will be open Saturday for anyone wishing to vote in the primary election, County Clerk Donna Zimmerman said. The courthouse will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., including over the noon hour.
Advance voting for the Aug. 5 primary began on July 16. The primary races are all for Republican candidates.
Zimmerman said the same electronic voting equipment that the county has used for several years will be used for this election. Although her office has looked at purchasing new machines and possibly returning to paper ballots, that is something that will take place in the future.
As of last Thursday, Barton County had 280 “suspense registrants,” according to Registration Clerk Darin DeWitt. Those are individuals who have registered to vote, but for one reason or another their registration is not yet official. DeWitt said the majority of these registrations are in suspense because the person has not yet provided proof of citizenship. That accounts for 165, and another 104 have incomplete applications for other reasons. For example, some registrants fail to check the boxes that confirm they are a citizen of the United States and that they will be 18 years of age on or before election day. Others failed to sign the registration form.
The remaining 11 suspense voters have not yet turned 18 years old. DeWitt said one of these will be 18 just before election day, and will be eligible to vote.
The county clerk’s office sends at least two reminders to anyone who has filled out a registration application that is not yet complete. “We try our best to reach those voters, to remind them,” Zimmerman said
“We will not deny anyone their constitutional right to vote,” Zimmerman said. “Everybody has the right to vote a provisional ballot.”
Provisional ballots aren’t counted on election night, but are set aside and dealt with when the Barton County Commission canvasses the votes. A voter who needed to complete his or her registration could still do so until then

Concerns expressed
Members of the Barton County chapter of the League of Women Voters have expressed concern about changes in Kansas law that they say make it more difficult to vote, including the proof of citizenship requirement. Chapter President Rose Kelly said they are also concerned about the so-called “two-tiered voting.” In Kansas and Arizona, the courts have ruled that anyone who uses a federal voter registration form is eligible to vote in a federal election, even without proof of citizenship. That means if a federal election was on the ballot, someone who was ineligible to vote on state and local races because they had not provided proof of citizenship could still vote on the federal questions.
Kelly said she is concerned there may be confusion at the polls. She also wonders what would happen if a number of provisional ballots were later counted and overturned the election results.
“These are questions we need to ask,” Kelly said. “The whole state needs to ask these questions.” League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization, open to men and women, which strives to keep voters informed, she added.
Zimmerman said none of the county’s suspense voters who haven’t yet supplied proof of citizenship used the federal application, even if they applied at the same time they were getting their driver’s license. The federal “motor voter” law made registration at the Department of Motor Vehicles an option, but that doesn’t mean they have to use the federal voter registration application, she explained. Most people who obtain the federal registration form get it online.
That means her offices won’t have to deal with two-tiered ballots. However, “If we didn’t have the proof of citizenship requirement, those people would be eligible to vote,” she said.
Zimmerman said it is always possible for the outcome of an election to change when the votes are canvassed. Election night totals are always considered “unofficial.”
“Over the years, we’ve had elections decided by one or two votes,” Zimmerman said. However, she doesn’t not recall a case where the canvass changed the results.

Help wanted
Zimmerman said her office has lined election workers signed up for the coming primary, but she’s always looking for people who would like to work at future elections. It involves a day of training prior to the election, and about 13 hours of work on election day, for very little pay. Anyone who is interested in learning more is invited to contact the Barton County Clerk’s Office, 620-793-1835.