More places to vote in Sedgwick County are available starting Tuesday.
Sedgwick County designated 15 churches, community buildings and a library as polling locations for the next four days. The election office in downtown Wichita will be open until noon on Monday, Nov. 5, for early voting.
Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman says voters can prepare ahead of time by filling out a sample ballot.
"You can fill out that sample ballot and keep it with you, keep it where other voters can’t see it and take it into the voting booth with you and pull it out and that will help speed up your process of filling out the ballot there at the polling location," Lehman says.
The polling locations for early voting are in Wichita, Derby, Valley Center, Goddard, Bel Aire and Haysville. The sites will be open through Saturday with limited hours for voting.
Lehman encourages voters to make a plan for when they will cast ballots.
"Make sure the location where you want to vote, meaning if you are voting early, make sure it’s open when you're going to vote," she says. "Certainly, on Election Day, make sure your polling place is the same because we have added 10 polling locations and things have changed."
With a record number registered voters this year — more than 302,000 — Sedgwick County has increased its voting sites and election workers for the general election next week.
Lehman is expecting a turnout of about 52 percent on Tuesday.
"Just make sure that you know who you are going to vote for before you go," she says. "It will speed up your process on the machine and will speed it up for every person behind you in line as well."
Lehman says the election office has sent out more than 50,000 mail ballots so far.
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