The Johnson County Election Office is still currently looking for place for people to vote come November. They currently have 200 polling locations and need 20 more.
Part of the issue is schools backing out. All six districts within Johnson County have concerns with safety.
"But because of the security issues involved in some of the school shootings over the last few years, most of our school districts have closed down the security of their buildings,” said Johnson County Election Commissioner Ronnie Metsker.
In a statement from the Olathe School District, they state, "We do allow polling places in non-school buildings such as our Instructional Resource Center. At this point, we have only expressed our concerns with polling places in schools due to the disruption to the instructional day.”
Schools are allowing polling places at sites without children, like administration buildings.
In the meantime, Metsker is reaching out to businesses and churches to be a place for people to vote. He is also still working with the schools.
“I believe there’s a way to work with them on their calendar in such a way that the children are not in the building on the day that the election occurs and then we no longer have a security issue,” said Metsker.
Johnson County also needs volunteers. They have a thousand right now, and need 1,000 more.
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Ali Hoxie can be reached at ali.hoxie@kshb.com
