Sedgwick County plans to set up a “mega voting site” at Intrust Bank Arena for early voting in the November general election.
Voters will be able to cast ballots at the arena in downtown Wichita from Oct. 19-31.
Anna Meyerhoff, the county’s central services manager, says the election office considered other venues, but settled on Intrust for its centralized location in the county. The site will have about 50 voting stations available in the south lobby, where voters can choose to use paper ballots or electronic voting machines.
Free parking will be available in the arena lots 1 and 3.
The Sedgwick County Election Office and 16 countywide polling locations will also open prior to election day, Nov. 3. The county will have 83 polling locations open on election day.
Meyerhoff says despite the in-person voting options, the county expects a significant increase in voting by mail. The office received more than 68,000 applications so far for the advance mail-in ballot. The office will send ballots through Oct. 27.
Voters have several options to return mail ballots: mail via the U.S. Postal Service, drop off at the Sedgwick County Election Office in Wichita, drop off at one of 14 ballot drop boxes installed throughout the county or drop off at a polling site.
The county sent out more than 50,000 ballots ahead of the August primary.