It’s that time again as we approach the Tuesday after the first Monday of November: Election Day is almost here, and with it a full slate of races for voters to weigh in on.
It is a midterm election, though, and with no presidential race on the ballot, history suggests that less than half of registered voters will bother to cast a ballot at all. Since 2002, voter turnout in midterm elections has averaged 42.8% nationwide—16 to 21% lower than in presidential elections, according to Ballotpedia.
Kansas has had a bit higher turnout in each of those elections, ranging between 0.8% and 6.6% higher than the nationwide turnout, but Kansas’ 45.6% average turnout in midterm elections isn’t anything to write home about. Almost five out of every nine registered voters in Kansas stay home for midterm elections.
We don’t need to ask why turnout is so much lower for midterms. Just by calling them the midterms, we point to the elephant in the room: there isn’t a presidential race on the ballot, and so many people consider every other race to be secondary, at best.
But midterm elections are filled with important races. Every seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is on the ballot, as are one-third of Senate seats (including one of Kansas’ Senate seats).
In Kansas, at the state level, we have races for governor and other statewide offices, along with every position in the Kansas House of Representatives and a portion of the Kansas Senate, along with judicial and state board of education positions. And once again, a possible amendment to the Kansas Constitution is on the ballot.
Locally, a majority of the Reno County Commission is on the ballot, and USD 308, The Highlands and Nickerson all have local ballot questions: USD 308 and The Highlands about bond issues and Nickerson about sales tax. Everyone’s ballot has meaningful, important races on it. The more local the race, the more likely each voter’s ballot is to make a difference.
Depending on where you live, your ballot will look slightly different from your neighbors’ ballot across town. If you’d like to see your exact ballot before you show up at the polling location, you can go online to myvoteinfo.voteks.org to view a sample ballot and look up your polling place.
You’ll be prompted to input your name and birthdate, which will then take you to a preview of your personal ballot based on your voter registration address.
There are reasons to think that this year’s voter turnout could be higher than usual statewide and locally. With Gov. Laura Kelly term-limited, the gubernatorial race has no incumbent. The U.S. Senate race may be the most competitive it has been in decades. Locally, the Kansas House of Representatives 101st and 104th district races have no incumbent, as Reps. Joe Seiwert and Paul Waggoner decided against seeking re-election, and with Randy Parks running in the 104th District, nobody has the incumbent’s advantage in the Reno County Commission District 1 race.
There also is a rematch of 2024 in the Kansas House of Representatives 102nd District, and the contents of our mailboxes suggest to us that consultants think that is a competitive race.
With a little bit of luck, all those races could translate into turnout above 50% locally and at the state level. Kansas has only achieved turnout above 50% in a midterm once this millennium, with 51.1% turnout in 2018.
If for no other reason, take the time to vote to give your complaints more weight over the next two to six years. If your choices win then do things that you don’t like, you have room to say, “We didn’t put you in office to do this.” And if your choices lose, and the winners do things that you don’t like, at least you can say you voted against them.
But nobody wants to hear complaints from someone who couldn’t be bothered to vote.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board