© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000179-cdc6-d978-adfd-cfc6d7d40002Coverage of the issues, races and people shaping Kansas elections in 2016, including statewide coverage in partnership with KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, and High Plains Public Radio.

Sedgwick County Election Official Urging Civility At Polling Locations

Nadya Faulx
/
KMUW/File photo
A sign points voters to the polling station at the Sedgwick County Courthouse.

Sedgwick County’s election commissioner is reminding voters that political discussions and campaigning are not allowed at polling locations.

Kansas law prohibits electioneering and “disorderly election conduct” at or within a certain distance of polling places. That means people can’t wear any buttons or t-shirts or hats that identify a candidate or political party or engage in any other type of campaign activity.

Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman is preparing poll workers to recognize and react to possible voter intimidation during Tuesday’s general election.

"If you are electioneering or you are disrupting a polling location, you will be asked to stop it. And if you do not, we will call the police, and we will have you arrested," Lehman says. "We will not have intimidation going on at our polling locations, period."

Lehman expects a high voter turnout on Election Day, so she has increased staffing and rented extra voting machines.

She says poll workers will be pushing paper balloting at every voting location to help control lines.

--

Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.