By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
A group aiming to have a polling location placed on the Fort Hay State University campus presented the Ellis County Clerk and Election Officer with a list of more than 450 names in support of the initiative this week.
Fort Hays State University student Madison Albers, from Goodland, presented the list of 480 people who signed the petition to County Clerk and Election Officer Bobbi Dreiling Tuesday afternoon.
Albers was joined by Hays residents and Fort Hays State graduates Anna Towns and Anniston Weber, as well as two representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas.
In a letter to the editor in March, Albers argued research shows that in Kansas, having more polling locations in a county has the highest correlation with voter turnout. Fewer voters per poll means a poll is less crowded, has shorter lines, and that voters have less average distance to travel, she said.
Albers and McCord said in a June 2023 letter to the editor they had approached Dreiling about two locations for polling locations at FHSU. Dreiling expressed issues with accessibility at the Memorial Union and availability at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
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A Hays Post reporter was in the meeting when the petition was presented Tuesday. The two parties had little discussion on Tuesday. Dreiling declined to comment to the group and chose to look over the petition before commenting to Hays Post later in the day on Tuesday.
She said she has seriously considered the group’s prior proposals and has had several conversations with them, but as the Ellis County Election Officer, it is her job to represent all of the county's voters.
“I want to make it equally accessible for everybody that's going to be voting, whether it be students or actual residents of Ellis County,” Dreiling said.
She added that the numbers do not show a need for an additional polling location on campus.
According to Chief FHSU Communications Officer Scott Cason, about 1,500 of the 3,600 students who attend classes on campus live on the FHSU campus in Hays.
Dreiling said voter registration data shows fewer than 30 college students live in the dorms and are registered in Ellis County. Fewer than 250 total registered voters live on campus and the surrounding area, according to Dreiling.
A common misconception is that all students and staff members would be able to cast their ballot at an on-campus location.
Voters have to vote in their precinct, which is determined by their address.
Only voters who live near the FHSU campus could cast a ballot at that location.
Dreiling said she has reached out to fellow county clerks around that state for advice, and no other similar size college town offers on-campus polling locations. That includes Washburn University in Topeka, Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg and Emporia State University in Emporia.
Dreiling said the group that is pushing for the on-campus polling location has several times compared voter turnout for Hays to Lawrence and the University of Kansas campus, but it is not a fair comparison.
If the on-campus population at FHSU was the size of the University of Kansas, Dreiling said she would absolutely place a polling location on campus.
The recent effort by students to have a polling location placed on campus is not new at FHSU. Dreiling said the attempts go back the better part of three decades, and she has relied on the advice of the three prior Ellis County clerks and other county clerks throughout the state when making her decision.
“They're (the students) not seeing the big picture of the feasibility and the economics of it,” Dreiling said. “I'm not doing it to spite them. I'm doing it because not only myself but three prior clerks have all turned them down, for good reason, and the feasibility of it, it's not there.”
Dreiling said if she chooses to make any changes, she may consider re-opening the polling location at 601 Main St.
That polling location, home to the Cottonwood Extension District, was closed along with St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 2900 Canal Blvd., in Hays last May.
The 601 Main St. location was closed due to voter turnout of less than 10 percent over the last eight elections.
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was closed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Messiah Lutheran Church, 2000 Main St., was chosen as its replacement.
Dreiling said re-opening a polling location at 601 Main St. would be consistent with the centrally located polling locations, allowing all voters to easily access the polls.
Dreiling said she would look over the petition but was disappointed that it did not contain actual signatures or contact information for those whose names were on it.
She said she hopes to be able to talk with those individuals, like she has done throughout the process, who may have not heard both sides. That includes conversations Dreiling has had with influential leaders within the Fort Hays State and Hays communities.
While the majority of the people who signed the petition said they are from Ellis County and are FHSU students, Dreiling said she has not heard from any other FHSU students outside of Albers and Grace McCord.
“I haven't had one student contact me, other than Madison and Grace, that said we need a polling location on campus” Dreiling said.
She added, other than Towns and Weber, “Not one resident of Ellis County, that's a taxpayer, has contacted me to relocate their polling location to the college.”
McCord and Albers served as co-coordinators of the American Democracy Project at FHSU.
Dreiling also took issue with a report from the ACLU that presents incorrect voter turnout numbers.
The ACLU reported that the voter turnout rate in Ellis County between 2022 and 2018 dropped by almost 8%, which was among the highest in the state.
Those figures are inaccurate, according to the official post-canvas voting report.
In the 2022 general election, voter turnout was 54.3% in Ellis County, with 10,612 of the 19,526 registered voters casting ballots. In 2018, 58.8% of the 17,800 registered voters in Ellis County voted.
That is a difference of 4.5% from 2022 to 2018, not the previously reported 8%.
Leslie Butsch is a field director with the ACLU and was one of the two representatives the group had at the meeting with Dreiling this week. She said they are working on election reforms across the state of Kansas.
She said the nonprofit got involved in the Ellis County issue after being contacted by residents who were in favor of the on-campus polling location.
The ACLU has been actively running an advertising campaign on several media outlets, including radio, social media, mailers and text blasts urging residents to support the initiative.
Dreiling said she will continue to work with the FHSU students. She already contacts them before advanced voting starts so they can send out a campus alert. She has also offered to help with a voter registration drive on campus but said the students have not yet responded to her offers.
She also opened Saturday voting for the Presidential Preference Primary, which resulted in an extremely low turnout. But she said that was expected.
Dreiling also said she encourages students and all other Ellis County residents to participate in early voting at the Ellis County Administration Center, 718 Main St., starting two weeks before any election.
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