A potentially record-setting Election Day for Sedgwick County

Since almost half of Sedgwick County’s 322,000 registered voters voted early in the general election, deputy election commissioner Melissa Schnieders had one question going into Tuesday:

“Who’s going to show up on Election Day?”

The answer, at least in the early hours of voting, was a small-but-steady stream of people.

Just after 3:50 p.m., Schnieders said in-person votes had topped 50,000.

“Is that not wild?”

Apparently it is in a year when so many people voted early.

Schnieders said she had no idea how many total votes would be cast in this year’s election, just that it will be an extremely high number.

“I mean, all bets are off at this point.”

She didn’t immediately have numbers from previous years for comparison, but Schnieders said, “Our turnout numbers are going to be so phenomenal. It’s amazing.”

Still, voters and even poll workers were a little confused when no long lines materialized as some thought they would.

“I figured you guys would have a line out the door,” Lori Carrithers said as she walked in to vote at Unity of Wichita at 21st and Oliver early Tuesday.

There didn’t seem to be long lines anywhere — or any guns, heavy security or any sort of drama that some expected and feared.

There was more of what you might call a quiet determination on the part of many.

“I think it’s probably the angriest I’ve ever voted,” said Cameron Nelson, who voted early in the day at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex at 29th North and Oliver.

In past elections, he’s “just been happy to cast a vote.”

“Now I feel like I’m trying to vote to fix something,” Nelson said. “I don’t care if there would have been two feet of snow out here, and I had to walk, I would have done it.”

Carrithers, on the opposite end of the political spectrum, was equally intent on voting.

“It’s very critical,” said the President Trump supporter.

“I’ve liked him since the day he come down the escalator,” Carrithers said. “I feel like that’s the first time I’ve had a president that is my president.”

This election seems to be drawing people who don’t normally vote.

“I’ve never voted, and then this year it was like, we’ve got to get Trump out of there,” said a woman named Dee, who preferred not to give her last name.

Dee finished voting at Riverside Christian Church by 7:15 a.m.

“I scheduled my house cleanings all around this,” she said of her day job.

“We’re supposed to be the United States of America,” Dee said. She said Trump is “everything that the United States does not stand for.”

John Singleton also called the current climate the Divided States of America.

Singleton voted early in the day at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex.

“The way things are going, I want my voice heard,” he said. “My life has been devastated by COVID-19.”

His wife got the virus in April and had a massive stroke. Singleton thinks things could have been different if the country’s leadership had acted differently.

“I’m not trying to place blame, but it wasn’t handled very well.”

Advance voting distrust

A lot of voters who showed up to polling places on Tuesday expressed concern over voting in advance.

“I don’t trust that the vote’s going to count,” said Duane Welsh, who voted first thing Tuesday morning at Riverside Christian Church.

He said early voting is probably safe, but, “There’s just too many potentials for problems.”

Of the 96,108 advance ballots that were requested, 78,751 so far have been returned.

The number requested was lower than the 120,000 requested ballots that the election office expected, but the number of people who voted in person before Election Day — 67,448 — was much higher.

“I’m blown away by these numbers,” Schnieders said.

On a mostly smooth-running day, the biggest excitement in her office came from a sudden influx of calls about whether people can have flags on their cars at polling places.

“We got bombarded for about an hour,” Schnieders said. “That was the talk of the day.”

Flags are not allowed within 250 feet of a polling place because that’s considered electioneering.

For the record — and for the one caller who asked — there’s no law against a truck driving down Kellogg waving one.

Civic duty gets personal

Some people who went to the polls Tuesday did so out of civic obligation, and others went for personal reasons — or a combination of the two.

“I think about the people . . . who can’t vote and try to do it for them as well,” said Laury Martinez. “Like the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) people.”

Martinez was born in Kansas, but her parents are from Mexico. This is her second election.

“It’s a big one.”

Zachary Flummerfelt also said that “this election meant a lot to me.”

He normally votes for third-party candidates, but this year he’s voting to keep Trump in office.

“Despite his kind of facade and appearance and personality, he’s really done a lot of good things,” Flummerfelt said.

From Middle East peace agreements to not starting new wars, he said, “I think those are undersold.”

Lots of people seemed proud to have voted. Some could be seen popping in their cars and — sometimes with a quick check of their hair — snapping selfies, ostensibly to put on social media.

Wichita City Council member Brandon Johnson, who voted in person at Unity, said he’s pleased to see how many people are voting this year.

“There’s definitely more interest. . . . There’s just a lot at stake right now, and people are engaged.”

He said he hopes it stays that way for next year’s council and school board races.

“They’re just as important,” Johnson said.

“I’m excited to see what this higher turnout means. You know, what America is saying, what Wichita’s saying, what the county’s saying and the state.”

Contributing: Eagle staff

This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 11:22 AM.