Sedgwick County staff juggling too many elections in 2025
Jan 17, 2025
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) -- The Sedgwick County election office is dealing with six elections this year, making it difficult to complete some of the office's other work. So, the election commissioner wants the state to change how future bonds and special questions are handled.
The Sedgwick County 2025 election calendar includes four bond elections in addition to the usual primary and general elections:
Feb. 25 - Wichita Public Schools bond election
April 8 - Two bond elections: Haysville USD 261 and Mulvane USD 263
May 13 - Goddard USD 265 bond election
Aug. 5 - 2025 primary election
Nov. 4 - 2025 general election
On Friday, Election Commissioner Laura Rainwater told Sedgwick County commissioners that the situation affects her staff's other duties.
"It makes it very difficult to do list maintenance, annexations," she told Sedgwick County commissioners on Friday. "It's just not a very efficient way to run our office because of all these elections."
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Rainwater would like Kansas to limit bond and ballot questions to one day in the spring or even to just the primary or general election.
"I tried to talk all these school districts into having one election day this spring and just couldn't get them all to agree on a date," she said.
She has contacted the Kansas Secretary of State's office and is waiting to hear back regarding its recommendation for future special elections.
Commissioners want the county's lobbyists to bring the issue to state legislators. However, they aren't sure it will pass because it is mainly a problem for the largest counties, like Sedgwick and Johnson.