Voters can drop their ballots off at three separate dropboxes around Douglas County, including the one outside of City Hall.
As the election deadline nears for the new library, voters may have questions on how to ensure their ballots will count.
All ballots need to be in possession of the Douglas County Clerk’s office by noon March 1, since this is an all-mail ballot election. Any ballots postmarked after the March 1 deadline will not count.
Voters can mail their ballot using the stamped envelope it arrives with, or can drop it off in any of the three drop boxes around the county: at City Hall, at the Douglas County Courthouse or at the new elections facility at 711 W. 23rd St. in Lawrence.
The County Clerk’s office received 529 ballots back as of Thursday, over 10% of the 4,841 ballots sent to Eudora residents.
Deputy County Clerk R.J. Wilson said voters should be mindful of the time it may take for a ballot to be delivered through the U.S. Postal Service.
“If a voter feels like they might not have enough time, we suggest that they go to City Hall and drop it in the drop box,” Wilson said.
After ballots are collected by noon March 1, a preliminary canvass will take place where each ballot is verified. Wilson said he is hopeful this process will be completed by the end of March 1.
Provisional ballots will be researched in the meantime, and election officials will note which ballots are eligible.
“Depending on the research that we do, then we’ll make that presentation to the Board of Canvassers and then they’ll make the final determination of whether those provisional ballots should count,” Wilson said.
The Board of Canvassers will convene at 9 a.m. March 14 at 711 W. 23rd St. in Lawrence. This final count will be open for the public to view. It’s yet to be announced if there will be a virtual viewing option.
“We are trying to set [a virtual viewing] up,” County Clerk Jamie Shew said. “We don’t have a camera, but IT says they might be able to set that up. For a special like this, a canvass is pretty short. We talked about even doing a Facebook Live.”
Wilson said election results will be posted on the County Clerk’s website.
“We’ll put it on our website, as we always put all official election results on our website,” Wilson said. “We’ll put the results from the preliminary canvass on our website, and we’ll make a note that these are not final, until the final canvass.”
Don Grosdidier, co-chairman of the Eudora Community Library Capital Campaign Committee, said he is optimistic about the possible election outcome based on conversations with community members.
“There are significant numbers of people that have been supportive of this idea for some time,” Grosdidier said. “I think at the end of the day, that is what will determine the outcome.”
Reach reporter Abby Shepherd at [email protected]