New machines a hit with early voters in Sedgwick County

As morning broke in Wichita on Tuesday, 4th District voters began to trickle in to polling places.

Polls opened in Sedgwick County at 6 a.m. At RiverWalk Church of Christ in downtown Wichita, a few voters came and left just before 7 a.m., including Shawn Eckman.

“It was very quick – I was only in there for about two minutes,” Eckman said. “The new voting machines are easy to use. I like to go early in the morning when there are fewer people.”

The new touch-screen machines print out a paper ballot for each voter to review and feed into a counting machine. Poll workers at RiverWalk were also available for anyone who had questions early Tuesday morning.

As of 8:30 a.m., Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman said everything seemed to be running smoothly since the polls opened. The 4th District includes 16 full counties and part of another in south-central Kansas.

At the Linwood Recreation Center in south Wichita, several people came in to vote at around 7:30 a.m.

Polling place supervisor James Mendenhall said the center featured a tighter configuration of machines than in the November election. He said the hope is that less mobile voters would have a shorter distance to walk.

“I was in and out in just a couple minutes,” said voter Vicky Atkinson. “Of course, there’s only one race, so that makes it less time-consuming, but I liked the new machines.”

Republican Ron Estes, Democrat James Thompson and Liberitarian Chris Rockhold are all vying for the congressional seat left vacant by Mike Pompeo when he left to head the CIA.

Since the November election, some polling places in Wichita have changed, though most have remained the same. Those with questions are asked to call the Sedgwick County election office at 316-660-7100.

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 9:12 AM with the headline "New machines a hit with early voters in Sedgwick County."