Diana Dean said Geary County ranks last in voter turnout among Kansas Counties, 105th. She forcefully made that point during a Chamber of Commerce candidate forum at the C.L. Hoover Opera House Tuesday night. "We are the lowest voter turnout in the state of Kansas consistently. I've gone back and done the numbers. We are consistently 105th out of 105. That's not acceptable.!
Dean, who is the Democratic candidate for county clerk, said that role lands on the shoulders of the county clerk's office. "They're not doing their job. I'm telling you I touched over 35-hundred and I've told over and over again nobody ever told me I should vote, nobody told me why I should vote. Dean noted that Geary County doesn't vote because they don't know how."
Republican incumbent, Rebecca Nordyke, said she believed over the years she has served many citizens. "Over the many years I have attended many events, Martin Luther King Day, sundown Salute, Juneteenth, Rotary Club, Pilot Club, Sertoma. I can't really name all the places that I've been and talked to people about how to register to vote and the importance of voting. "
Nordyke also touched on minority voting. "We have had many people of color coming in to vote in person and so I know that they are voting. I know that I have personally helped some of them with issues that they have had with voter registration with getting a ballot mailed to them and not knowing that process is. "
The election is Nov. 3rd.