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HARTINGTON – Voters in the Randolph Public Schools district will be receiving ballots for the school bond issue in mailboxes soon.
Cedar County Clerk Jessica Schmit mailed 1,159 ballots Monday for the special election.
The school district encompasses voters from not only Cedar County but also Wayne and Pierce counties. Schmit will be the one coordinating the three-county election from her office in Hartington.
While those in Cedar County are used to receiving ballots by mail, voters in Pierce and Wayne counties will also be receiving their ballots by mail and not going to a polling place for the special bond election, she said.
Ballots must be returned by 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 13.
One significant change for a special election is that those returning ballots by mail must stamp the return envelope, Schmit said. In a primary or general election, the postage is paid.
Return envelopes will be addressed to the Cedar County Clerk’s Office regardless of what county the voter lives in.
Voters can also return their ballots in person at their respective county clerk’s office or at ballot drop boxes at their respective county courthouses.
The sheriff’s offices in Pierce and Wayne counties will be hand delivering any ballots that come into those counties to Cedar County on election night for tabulating.
No matter how you return it, voters must comply with the Voter ID provisions by writing in their driver’s license number on the return envelope or including a photocopy of their driver’s license when returning the ballot.
“The envelopes will look a little bit different and so I would just encourage everyone to read the instructions,” Schmit said.
The deadline to register to vote is Friday. For those registering to vote after the ballots have been mailed, one can be issued over the counter.
At the general election last November, the school bond issue failed by only eight votes and school board members got to work immediately to re-evaluate the project.
Modifications made to the scope of facility improvements and leveraging money in the district’s special building fund shed $1 million from the previous bond proposal.
In this spring’s special election, voters will decide on an $8.75 million project which includes a scaled-down version of the new CTE/Ag building from 13,000 square feet to 9,680 square feet. Additional space for the art program and a mezzanine was dropped from the original plan.
Roof repairs slated at the high school were taken out of the bond proposal, instead funded through the district’s special building fund and completed this summer. That leaves the high school gym air conditioning project remaining on the bond.
No changes were made in the improvements planned at the elementary building, estimated at nearly $4.9 million. Planned elementary improvements include replacing the original HVAC boiler system, electrical and lighting upgrades, renovating restrooms, improving front door security, and constructing a new warming/serving kitchen.
There is no plan if the bond doesn’t pass, School Superintendent Daryl Schrunk said at the last school board meeting.
“Our plan is to pass the bond we came up with and we feel like this is what we need to do,” he said.
