HOBART – The days when the Kiowa County Election Board shared a building with the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office are nearly over.
Construction of the county’s new election board office will be finished in late October or early November, Election Board Secretary Terri Meinert said in an Oct. 10 interview. However, Meinert and her staff will not move into the new building until after the November election.
“It would just be cutting it too close, and we have everything we need laid out, ready to go – organized,” Meinert said. “We’re not about to try to make a big move before the election.”
Kiowa County’s registered voters who want to take advantage of early voting will cast their ballots at the current election board office, located inside the old National Guard Armory building in Hobart. People who prefer to wait until Election Day will vote at their regular polling places. Building a new election board office Kiowa County officials decided to build a new election board office after voters approved a countywide 1% sales tax to construct and equip a new jail. The county’s sales tax rate was set at 1% before the new sales tax was implemented Oct. 1, but it is now 1.5%.
The tax is expected to generate about $817,000 a year for county coffers, which will pay for converting the old National Guard Armory building into a jail. The building currently houses the election board office as well as the sheriff’s office.
The election board office had to move out its current location in the Armory building to make way for the new jail, Meinert said. She said county officials considered moving the election office into an existing building, but the cost of renovating an old building was too high, so they decided to build a new facility instead.
“They had ARPA money, and that’s what they’re building the election board with,” Meinert said, referring to the county’s share of money under the American Rescue Plan Act, a federal relief package designed to help local governments cope with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the new election board office cost about $450,000, which came out of the county’s pot of ARPA dollars.
The new election board office was built on county-owned land directly south of the current office, 215 N. Lincoln St. in Hobart. The new facility measures 2,000 square feet, 800 feet larger than the 1,200-square-foot current office.
“We’ve got lots of room for early voting and to accommodate all our voters,” Meinert said.