Tuesday’s election is a big one. Here’s what you can expect from the Douglas County elections office, and from our news team.
Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Tuesday. We’ll be out and about to talk to some voters at the polls. (See details you need to know to cast your ballot on Election Day in this article, and find our complete election guide at this link.)
Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said results of early voting will probably start to become available around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday.
We’ll post articles with those results in easy-to-read charts as soon as possible — keep an eye on LawrenceKSTimes.com and our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Threads and elsewhere) for the latest updates.
“At some point in the evening, we will probably add to the advance numbers from ballots dropped off earlier that day,” Shew said. “It takes some time for a ballot envelope to be processed, checked for security and audited by the advance board.”
After the results at roughly 7:45 p.m., Shew said, there will probably be updates every half hour or so.
“The polling places have a number of required audits and balancing of ballots and signatures,” Shew said. “Based off our projected turnout it will take time for the boards to complete and get to the office.”
Even after the last update of the night Tuesday, election results aren’t quite final. The office will continue to add ballots that arrive on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as long as they were properly postmarked on or before Election Day. If any races are very close on Tuesday, those additional ballots could determine the winner.
There will be an election canvass to certify the results at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18 at the elections office, 711 W. 23rd St., Suite 1 in Lawrence. The canvass is open to the public, Shew said.
“Nothing is official until the canvass,” he said.
Results and delays
As Douglas County voters already broke in-person early voting turnout records over the weekend, overall turnout is expected to be very high. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab has also predicted a record number of voters.
Statewide in Kansas, polls are required to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but counties may also choose to open at 6 a.m. and/or keep polls open until 8 p.m. That could delay some results slightly.
The Kansas Secretary of State’s website, sos.ks.gov, will have statewide results available as they come in.
As a hyperlocal publication, our focus won’t be on the national results. We will share how Douglas County voted in the presidential and other national races, but that will not be our top priority on Election Night.
Experts have warned that, at the national level, “Election Day is not results day.”
Find more information about voting in Douglas County on the county’s website. If you have questions, you can email elections@douglascountyks.org or call 785-832-5267.
If you have any questions about our coverage, please feel free to reach out and we’ll do what we can to help. Find our full election guide and more coverage linked below.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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