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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.

Voter Registrations Up In Sedgwick County Compared To 2008 Election

Nadya Faulx
/
KMUW/File photo

Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day, a single day set aside for a coordinated awareness campaign to get more people registered to vote.

As KMUW’s Deborah Shaar reports, social media is making a big difference with registrations in Sedgwick County this year.

Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman says recent Facebook, Google and Twitter campaigns have been sending links to people so they can register to vote online.

And, she says, it’s working.

"I got here Sunday morning, and we received over 1,100 electronic voter registrations on Sunday morning alone, so we are definitely seeing the effects of all these 'Get Out the Vote' drives and registration projects," Lehman says.

She says there are more than 283,000 people registered to vote in Sedgwick County.

That’s up about 40,000 from this same time in the 2008 election, the last presidential election that did not have an incumbent candidate on the ballot.

She expects her office to process an additional 30,000 or more voter registrations before the November election.

"We have processed just shy of 8,000 more voter registrations so far this year than we did in ’08, so we’re definitely seeing an increase in the amount of registrations we are receiving and what we are processing, and then also the total number of people who are registered to vote," Lehman says.

The last day to register to vote – by mail, electronically or in person – is Oct. 18.

Advance voting will begin Oct. 24. The general election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 8.

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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.