Communities in Allen County remain in a “wait-and-see” mode as they determine how to prepare for fall elections, starting in 2017.
Since almost forever, elections in Iola and Allen County have been in the spring.
That changed earlier this year, when Kansas legislators decided all elections held in odd-numbered years should occur in the fall as a means to boost voter turnout.
The change also means local governments either will have to slightly extend, or cut back, some council members’ terms.
The League of Kansas Municipalities has sent information to communities to guide them through the process.
“Ending 154 years of spring elections will be a cumbersome process for many cities,” Michael Koss, legal counsel for the League of Kansas Municipalities, wrote in the most recent edition of the Kansas Government Journal. “But the Legislature has created several mechanisms to deal with the move to November.”
“There’s still a lot of gray area,” Moran City Attorney Bret Heim told the Register. “A lot of it can be fixed with some common sense. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of common sense in Topeka sometimes.”
Much of the gray area, according to Koss, is because the new law is a compromise version of multiple bills, and thus it contains numerous ambiguities and contradictions.
AMONG the challenges cities are facing:
— Establishing how current office-holders will transition their terms to the new election cycle. For example, one law stipulates that terms that would have ended in April 2017 will now end in January 2018, after the November 2017 elections.
— Filing deadlines will have to be amended to coincide with the new election dates. Alterations also may be necessary for communities subject to primary elections (such as Iola) or those who do not (such as Moran.) “They also need to make changes in the law for appointments,” Heim added.
— Term lengths. The new law will authorize communities to continue using numerous combinations of staggered or non-staggered terms. Some communities will also be permitted to hold elections in November in even-numbered years (for those serving three-year terms, or in order to stagger elections.)
LIKE MORAN, Iola officials are aware of changes coming down the pike, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton said.
“But we’re still waiting to see what is finalized before we start making plans,” she said.
