October 17, 2008
The deadline to register to vote in Kansas is Monday, October 20th!Go to [www.douglascountyelections.com][1] and make sure that you are registered to vote and that your address is up to date. And by up to date I mean that your voting address matches the place where you live.Your friends at L.com have information on how/where to register [Here.][2]*Ok...time to talk about a common misconception.You have moved, but you haven't updated your Driver's License, so your address on your Driver's License is out of date. But, when you go register to vote you list your voting address as the same address that your outdated license lists. And this is a problem. As an election official I could care less what address is on your Driver's License. You need you to register at the address that you are currently living at, not for you to register at an outdated Driver's License address. Register to vote where you live. Let me repeat this, your voter registration address should be the same as the address of where you are sleeping. Your outdated Driver's License is not the concern of an elections office, but is going to be the concern of the nice officer who pulls you over for speeding on Massachusetts between 23rd and 19th streets.But, you say to me, "I have to show a Driver's License with an address that matches my voter registration in order to be able to vote." And you are wrong. Let's go over this again. Kansas Law requires that if you are a first time voter in Douglas County that you have to show an accepted form of ID. Here are the accepted forms of ID in Kansas:Ever first-time voter in the county must provide valid identification. [KSA 25-2309(b)(18)] "First-time voter" includes any person who has never before voted in any official election in the county where registering. Identification may be provided at the time of registration, prior to the election or at the polling place. Once a first-time voter has submitted valid identification, he/she is not required to provide identification again. Kansas driver's license or Kansas nondriver's identification issued by DMV Bank statement: Checking or savings account statement, interest statement Utility bill: Gas bill, electric bill, water bill, telephone bill (cellular or land line), cable television bill Paycheck: Paycheck stub, notice of electronic deposit, W2 form Government check, Medicare or Medicaid check, SRS check, WIC check, other public assistance check Other government document: US military ID card, college student ID card, passport, nursing home roster if on government form (such as filed with KDHE, Aging), federal/state/county/local government employee ID, pilot's license, hunting or fishing license, gun permit, ham radio operator's license issued by Federal Communications Commission, naturalization document (if it has name and photo or name and address, as stated above), vehicle registration, copy of DMV change of address form. A couple of quick points about the ID requirement:The ID must contain the voter's name and photo or the voter's name and current residential address. Of an ID contains an address, it must match the residential address on the voter's registration record. So, if you are a first time voter in Douglas County and your Driver's License Address is out of date, bring one of the other forms of valid Identification. If you are not a first time voter in Douglas County, just show up with your patience and a smiling face. If you aren't sure, bring a valid form of ID. If you think that every voter should show an valid Driver's Lisence every time they want to vote then contact your Kansas State representatives and ask them to change the Kansas Law.**One small change, the County Clerk's Office will be open and we will be accepting registrations until 7:00 p.m. on Monday night. Come by and say hi, and register to vote or update your registration. Sometimes we have to change a polling location. We have 67 precincts, it happens. An example is Precinct 37 (Haskell Coffin) doesn't have Air-Conditioning, so every August election we move Haskell Coffin to a new voting location AND we send a letter to EVERY voter that lives in that precinct. So, when I see the comments in the paper about not knowing that your polling location was moved I know: you didn't read your mail from our office, or that your voter registration address is out of date and you haven't updated it so you didn't get the letter. If you lived in Douglas County, moved out of Douglas County, and then move back to Douglas County, by law you are a first time voter again. *And please don't yell at me because I am not making you show an ID. I am just following the law. [1]: http://www.douglascountyelections.com [2]: http://www.lawrence.com/events/2008/oct/20/32080/
Comments
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El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says...
Keith, has anyone told you lately that you have a nice asterisk?
October 17, 2008 at 7:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lostblend (Keith Campbell) says...
Ahh shucks...thanks Bill. I am glad you appreciate my asterisks especially since I learned it from you.
October 17, 2008 at 8:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lostblend (Keith Campbell) says...
It looks like Douglas County is filled with a whole bunch of procrastinators. I think the LJ World is going to take a picture of the number of registrations we recieved today. If not, I will try to describe the nearly impossible.
October 20, 2008 at 5:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alm77 (anonymous) says...
Keith, I saw this on CNN:http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/21/jones.nm.voter.turned.away.mxf.koatAre we going to run into issues like this in Kansas??
October 21, 2008 at 1:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )