Shannon Patterson, Allen County clerk, described her job responsibilities for Iola Kiwanis Club members at their Tuesday meeting, focusing on the election process.
Patterson’s office is central in most county functions, she noted. In addition to keeping minutes and historical records for the County Commission, the clerk’s office is involved in varying degrees with payroll and human resources, property transfers, taxation, and other functions of local government.
“Our office works with just about every other office in about everything the county does,” she said.
As county election officer, that task is chief among Patterson’s responsibilities. She oversees every official vote that takes places – upcoming Nov. 7 are elections for city positions and school boards in Allen County, as well as a probable bond election for courtroom expansion at the county courthouse – and handles staffing, training, equipment, materials and recording elections at four polling places: Iola, Humboldt, Gas, and Moran. In addition, early voting often takes places in the courthouse downstairs assembly room.
Volunteer election workers are always needed, she said, and those helping are paid $10.60 per hour for two to three hours of training and about 13 hours of work on election day. A typical countywide election requires 30 volunteers, as well as Patterson and her office staff.
Election protocols come from the Kansas Secretary of State’s office, and Patterson ensures integrity is maintained for each election locally.
Allen County programs its own “hardened” computers – which means they are connected only to electrical outlets and not to the internet, phone or any other outside line – for each election, and staff creates the ballots given to voters.
Poll workers check records to make sure people are eligible to vote, and any questions results in a “provisional” ballot – for no picture identification, non-current addresses, party affiliation questions and the like – which are then determined valid or not by Patterson and the County Commission.
Voters can choose paper ballots, filled in with pencil, or “express voting” which is done by pressing choices on a machine’s monitor and printing a ballot generated by those choices. Patterson said an overwhelming majority of Allen Countians prefer machine voting for convenience, but some stay with paper ballots or choose them to save time when voter traffic is heavy and machines aren’t available without a wait.
“If I had unlimited machines, I really feel I’d have very few paper ballots,” she said.
The tabulation process is open to the public, and the county clerk’s office welcomes residents wishing to watch counting of ballots in the evening after an election takes place.
The Iola Kiwanis Club meets weekly, noon Tuesdays, at Allen Community College and welcomes interest in membership. Email [email protected].
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