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HARTINGTON — With just under a week left to turn in ballots, nearly half of the eligible voters have made their choices known in the upcoming Randolph School District bond election.
Cedar County Clerk Jessica Schmit mailed 1,159 ballots out in late April for the special election in the Randolph School District.
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. As of Monday afternoon, Schmit said 507 or 44 percent of those ballots have already been returned. Of this number, 409 ballots came in from Cedar County, while 32 Wayne County ballots had been returned and 66 Pierce County ballots While those in Cedar County are used to receiving ballots by mail, voters in Pierce and Wayne counties also received their ballots by mail instead of going to a polling place for the special bond election, she said.
Ballots must be returned by 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 13. Approximately 87 percent of registered voters from Cedar County living within the Randolph School District cast a vote in the 2024 General Election.
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 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.
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.
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. Unless there are issues with counting the ballots that would push the Times’ print deadline, readers can expect to see results in next week’s paper.
