Deadline looms for Pretty Prairie voters

PRETTY PRAIRIE – A week remains for Pretty Prairie voters to get their mail election ballots on the city’s proposed taxes for the 2018 budget back to the Reno County Courthouse Annex, 125 W. First Ave.

The deadline for ballots to be in the county office is noon Sept. 15.

The ballot question asks if a resolution shall be adopted to increase city property taxes by $40,197 to fund next year's budget. State law requires authorization by voters if the property tax dollars to be raised exceed the rate of inflation.

As of midday Thursday, 100 ballots out of the 425 ballots mailed had been returned with the voter’s required signature on the outside of the envelope. Another six ballots were returned without the signature. Each return envelope bears a printed label showing the voter’s name, and county staff were in the middle Thursday of trying to contact those voters so they would have the opportunity to come in and sign the envelope so the ballot inside could be counted, according to Reno County Deputy Election Officer Jenna Fager.

Eighty-one ballots mailed out Aug. 26 came back to the county office marked as undeliverable. In some cases, the voter had moved. In other cases, voters had U.S. Postal Service boxes, and home delivery is not provided to those customers. "If we can resend it, we do," Fager said.

Voters with questions about the election should contact the Reno County Clerk’s office, (620) 694-2934.

The count will not begin until after noon Sept. 15. The unofficial result of the election should be known that afternoon.