Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for the primary election.
Nearly 10,000 people in both Riley and Pottawatomie counties combined requested mail ballots, with about 62 percent (6,163) of those ballots having been received in the two counties as of noon Monday.
The return rate for mail in ballots has been much greater in Pottawatomie County than it has been in Riley County. As of noon Monday, Pott. County had received 2,140 of the 2,855 mail ballots, leaving just over 700 still needing to come in. County Clerk Nancy McCarter says they also saw 289 people vote in advance at the Clerk’s office in Westmoreland.
“If they are posted marked election day I will add them into the totals up until Friday,” McCarter said in an email to KMAN Monday.
If you have a mail ballot, they must be postmarked no later than Tuesday to be counted. Otherwise they can be hand delivered to the county clerk’s office or to your polling place in either county.
Riley County mailed out 7,090 ballots to voters, but only 4,023 of those have been returned, leaving just over 3,000 ballots still to be received. In person advance numbers totaled 790 at the Riley County Office Building. Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo tells KMAN they intend to have all polling places open Tuesday.
“Masks are required at polling places in Manhattan. At all the rural polling places, we do encourage the use of masks and most of the rural polling places are small and social distancing is hard,” he said.
It is encouraged in those areas where masks aren’t mandated that residents abide by local health recommendations and stay 6 feet apart from others.
KMAN will have election results on air after the polls close and those will be shared also on our Facebook and Twitter pages as well as NewsRadioKMAN.com. Contested races are as follows:
Riley County Commission
Pottawatomie County Commission
Pottawatomie County Sheriff
Pottawatomie County Clerk
Republicans
Leslie Dugan
Dawn Henry
Wendy Hudson
Kansas House
U.S. Senate
Republicans
Lance Berland (R-Abilene)
Derek Ellis (R-Topeka)
Bob Hamilton (R-Bucyrus)
Kris Kobach (R-Lecompton)
David Lindstrom (R-Overland Park) **
Roger Marshall (R-Great Bend)
Brian Matlock (R-Kansas City)
Steve Roberts (R-Overland Park)
Gabriel Robles (R-Topeka)
Democrats
Barbara Bollier (D-Mission Hills)
Robert Tillman (D-Wichita)
U.S. House of Representatives (District 1)
Republicans
Bill Clifford (R-Garden City)
Tracey Mann (R-Salina)
Democrats
Kali Barnett (D-Manhattan)
Christy Cauble Davis (D-Cottonwood Falls)
