Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Administrative Services Department

TO:	Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager
FROM: CC:	Frank Reeb, Administrative Services Director/City Clerk Toni Wheeler, Director of Legal Services
DATE:	October 26, 2007
RE:	Mail Ballot Elections

This memorandum provides general information about the mail ballot election process. As described in more detail below, a mail ballot election can be an option for the City of Lawrence provided statutory requirements are met. While the City Commission would have the statutory co-authority, along with the County Election Officer (CEO)/Douglas County Clerk to select the date of the election, the CEO would conduct the election and the Secretary of State’s Office must approve the CEO’s written plan for the election.

Mail Ballot Elections are authorized and conducted pursuant to K.S.A. 25-432, et seq. Pursuant to K.S.A. 25-432, the City of Lawrence may hold an election by mail provided:

• The election is conducted on a date, mutually agreed upon by the governing body and the CEO/Douglas County Clerk, not later than 120 days following the date the request is submitted by the governing body;
• The Secretary of State’s Office must approve a written plan, submitted by the CEO for the conduct of the election, and such written plan shall include a written timetable;
• The election must be nonpartisan;
• The election is not one at which any candidate is elected, retained or recalled; and
• The election cannot be held on the same date as another election in which qualified electors of the City of Lawrence are eligible to cast ballots.

As for the general mail ballot process, the CEO will mail all official ballots with a return identification envelope, postage paid, along with instructions sufficient to describe the voting process to each elector entitled to vote in the election not sooner than 20 days and not later than 10 days before the date of the election. K.S.A. 25-433 requires the mail ballot envelopes to be addressed to the address appearing in the registration records and the envelope must be prominently marked ‘Do Not Forward.” The elector may return the marked ballot by mail, if it is received by the CEO by the date of the election, or personally deliver the ballot before noon on the date of the election. Regardless of how the ballot is returned, it must be returned in the return identification envelope. This envelope must contain the specific form set out in K.S.A. 25-433(c) requiring the elector to declare under penalty of election perjury (a felony) that, among other things, the elector has not and will not vote more than once. This form must be signed and include the qualified electors resident address.

K.S.A. 25-435 provides that advance voting ballot provisions shall apply to mail ballot elections only insofar as they do not conflict except that the CEO shall not accept any application for an advance voting ballot later than the 21^st day before the election.

Elector registration is addressed in K.S.A. 25-436. That statute provides that the CEO shall not mail a ballot to those electors not registered 30 days prior to the date of the election. In the event an elector registers after 30 days but prior to the closing of the registration books, that elector may apply for a ballot in the same manner as an elector requesting a replacement ballot.

The mail ballot election statutes do not contain special notice or legal publication provisions; thus, any required Notice publication would come from other applicable statutes. For example, a bond election by mail would need to comply with the bond election Notice provisions in K.S.A. 10-120 which requires an election Notice publication in a newspaper of general circulation once each week for two consecutive weeks. The first publication shall not be less than 21 days prior to the election.

I’ve also talked with Brad Bryant, Assistant Secretary of State, and the person who would approve the statutorily required written plan. Mr. Bryant forwarded the attached approved written plan from a recent Unified Government/Turner Unified School District #202 mail ballot election to provide some idea as to the information needed for the CEO’s written plan and also to see the related timelines. In considering timeframes, it is best to view the mail ballot election as generally a 120 day or 4 month process although, based on viewing timelines from recent or upcoming elections it can be shortened by approximately 30 days. The USD #202 bond election by mail was a 120 day process, while the upcoming November 6^th, City of Manhattan Quality of Life mail ballot bond election appears to be about an 85 day process. A link to the Riley County website for the upcoming City of Manhattan election may be helpful.

(http://www.rileycountyks.gov/index.asp?NID=761) .

Please let me know if you need additional information.

Encl.: USD #202 Approved Written Plan