November’s presidential election is County Clerk and Election Officer Karen Brooks last first thing to do.
Confused? It’s actually pretty simple.
Brooks is completing the last year of her first four year term. She was elected in November 2004 and took office in January 2005. That was the same election George Bush was elected to a second four year term.
So, while Brooks has conducted state, county, city and special question elections, she is in the process of conducting her first presidential election.
"It took four years to get through everything," she said. "Some things only happen every four years."
With less than 60 days to the Nov. 4 general election, Brooks is already receiving requests for absentee ballots. Twenty requests came in on Monday. She estimated 50 requests have been received – mostly from people around here.
"There are about 300 we always send out," she said. Again, they mostly go to people who live in Cowley County. Most men and women who are overseas have already asked to vote by mail.
No matter how early the requests come in, the ballots won’t be mailed before Oct. 15. Brooks is done with her part – now she is just waiting on the Secretary of State. The secretary rotates the names on the ballots so the same candidate doesn’t always appear first.
"Some times, people vote just for the one on top. That’s an unfair advantage," Brooks said.
Many Democrats re-registered so they could vote for the Republican candidate for sheriff in the primary election.? Most of those people went back to unaffiliated status after the primary since they can split their votes in the general election.
The Democratic and Republican conventions which just concluded got people thinking about the election process and the importance of voting, according to Brooks. She’s already gotten questioned about the city elections next April and the filing deadline for both the city and school board elections.
The presidential election follows the political party process but city and school board candidates do not. There are 22,763 registered to vote currently. People may continue to register or re-register through Oct. 20. Voters have to be 18 on the day of the election to cast a ballot.
"Hopefully, we’ll have a good turnout," Brooks said.
There were 23,149 registered for the November 2004 election – 6,781 Democrats, 190 Libertarians, 41 members of the Reform party, 9,567 Republicans and 6,570 unaffiliated.
The Bush-Cheney ticket carried Cowley County with 9,407 votes. The Kerry-Edwards ticket received 4,818 votes.
