The 2022 midterm election brought in a large number of Seward County voters according to Seward County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer.
“We had almost 6,800 people vote,” she said.
Those 6,800 is approximately 60% of registered voters in Seward County. Schweitzer said the number was high because of the number of things to vote on.
“In Seward County, other than the governor and congress races, we had a lot of other issues and races to vote on,” she said. “There were contested commissioners, mayors and three city council races. There was a lot to vote on this year.”
Schweitzer also said the number of people who voted early or at home was high too.
“We had a record number of people who voted early during the Covid year, but we were still high this year,” she said. “On average, we’ve had 400-500 people vote early. This year, we had around 915.”
Voting at home is becoming more common after Covid. Schweitzer said she thought the number was high this year because of the number of issues to vote on.
“There were two ballots, lots to vote on and lots of reading,” she said. “Some people like to take their time and research.”
As far as election day, Schweitzer said things were smooth and Seward County didn’t have any major problems.
Although things went well, Schweitzer said it will take a little longer to process everything. She said they probably won’t officially finish until a week after the election.
“Because of the big turnout, it takes longer to process all of the ballots,” Schweitzer said. “With all the rhetoric that’s been going on about election fraud, we have to do a lot more things after the election so that it calms people who think the election is fraudulent. We want to prove that our information is correct, but it does take time to do all these extra things.”
The process can also be long because of the steps they go through with the canvassing boards. The Canvassing boards go through and look at the ballots and look for certified write in candidates. If they are certified, then the vote counts.
The ballots then haveto go through the same process again with a state canvassing board, and then are made offical by the secretary of state.
A reason that the election went so smoothly this year is due to the number of workers that helped. Schweitzer said they had around 100 people.
“There are roughly 80 people or so that serve on the election boards,” she said. “On the night, there are about 10 people in the courthouse helping and others that do other small jobs such as helping bring the ballots back to the courthouse.”
Schweitzer also said she got done a little later than usual, but that things still went well.
“We got done around midnight,” she said. “We had about 52 provisionals, or people that move but didn’t change their registration, so we have to handle those one by one. It’s extra work, but it allows people to vote.”
Overall, Schweitzer wanted to make sure that Seward County residents know that the election went smoothly.
“They can be assured and trust that our election was safe and secure,” she said.
