5 November 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Ahead of next week’s general election, efforts are increasing by local groups to get people to vote. Root the Power hosted an event today called Vote Mob. They used to host this event downtown, near the court house, but this year, they moved it to a zip code that has low voter turnout. The goal was to educate voters and get them out to even vote early.
300 thousand people were registered to vote in Sedgwick County. Last time the mayoral seat was up for grabs in 2019, but just a little more than 61 thousand ballots were cast.
“We’re just trying to break down those barriers little by little,” said Root Power Intern Tiayla Maholmes.
She says understanding what those barriers are is key to increasing voter turnout.
“Transportation, resources, just the basic knowledge of voting, like what prevent even voting on, what’s happening, and so those things are barriers and blocks that prevent people from voting,” said Maholmes.
Maholmes believes people her age may not understand the importance of voting in their local election.
“I helped a ton of people register to vote, 50 people to register to vote, and a lot of them were my peers, and I noticed that they weren’t voting,” said Maholmes.
The League of Women Voters was also at the event. Their co-president, Nancy Brown, says the biggest issue is that people do not think elections at the local level are as important as those on a national scale, like the Presidential Election.
“Sometimes 5 or 10 votes makes the difference in who wins an election, so here, like nowhere else, this is where your vote really matters and can really make a difference,” said Brown.
She says they’ve had mixed turnouts at tabling events that the League of Women Voters has hosted, but they won’t know if there’s been an increase in votes until after the election.
Early voting is open until Monday, November 6th. You can find early polling locations here.