voting

The deadline to register to vote for the November election is Tuesday.

Carole Neal is the Voter Service chair with the League of Women Voters of Kansas, a nonprofit that encourages people to participate in government. She says people seem more aware of this election, which is reflected in more people registering to vote.

Neal said people realize their voice needs to be heard.

“We’ve really tried to educate ... them how one vote can make a difference, especially in a local election,” she said.

The Sedgwick County Election Office is recruiting workers for the November election.

Workers are paid for mandatory training, and for working at Early Voting Centers and on Election Day.

Cross-trained clerks, runners and provisional ballot judges are paid $7.50 an hour. Supervising judges are paid $10 an hour; supervising judges and runners are also paid mileage.

Melissa Schnieders is the deputy election commissioner for Sedgwick County. She said between 600 and 700 workers help with mayoral and school district elections.

Kansas would do away with the current voter registration deadlines under a bill in the Legislature.

Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach pushed to get his office the authority to prosecute voting crimes. A bill to rescind those powers got its first hearing Monday.

Political experts say Kansas is seeing an increasing urban-rural divide, especially after the November election when Democratic voters in the state's urban centers pushed Laura Kelly to defeat Republican Kris Kobach in the governor's race.

More than a quarter of all registered voters in Sedgwick County have already cast ballots ahead of Election Day.

Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman says her office processed more than 860 voters in the last hours of early voting Monday.