Web exclusive: Dottie Staab, county clerk candidate
By KALEY LYON
HDN: What are your thoughts on the current voting process in Ellis County? Are more poll places needed? What changes would you make, if elected?
DS: One of the main reasons I decided to run was because people had been complaining. The inconsistency of the polling locations, the frustration people were feeling and the confusion of not knowing where their polling location was.
The answer to the question is yes. I feel more are needed and I do have to say that since I announced my intent there have been more locations opened.
That may have been anyway, and with the passing of the new satellite advance voting, all of that had just come across form the legislature. I'm glad that's being taken advantage of.
I'm very excited to see the advanced locations opened up in Ellis and Hays and other communities.
When I visited Ellis, in fact, people were quite excited about that.
Changes I would make, if elected, I would say consistency. Also, so many people are skeptical of the electronic machines.
There is a way the machines can have an actual paper trail that you look at, you verify yes, that's what I entered in the system.
You initial it, you drop it into a box. That way if there's any paper trail that needs to be followed later you've got verification validation and I feel that's important.
Actually there's several states, including Washington state, that is pushing right now to totally no longer use the electronic voting machines --a big push for 2010.
HDN: Is there anything else you'd say about the electronic voting machines?
DS: One thing I would say, a lot of people, when I visited with them I don't think it's emphasized enough that they do have a choice.
It's kind of like you walk in and you think you have to do the machine. And you don't, you can ask for a paper ballot.
I was excited to see at Fort Hays with the satellite advanced voting that it was paper. They didn't even have the machine.
HDN: If more poll places are needed, where would you like to put them?
DS: "First of all, where they're definitely handicap accessible, and I mean, it used to be years ago, it used to be there was a polling location at each and every precinct.
And people knew where they needed to go vote. And I'd really like to get it back to that.
HDN: Any changes you would make regarding satellite or advanced polling places?
DS: "For one, there's a new law that just passed that satellite voting can take place in nursing homes.
I feel that is necessary. The inability, a lot of people have really sharp minds, but they just aren't mobile.
And to have it go to them I think is a big push, and with our elder generation, we're living longer and there's more of us, and I think that's necessary.
I feel that's very, very important. That's one of those rights that people love to continue as long as their minds are sharp and they're able to.
Just educating -- I'd like to see it coming back. I know it occurs in some of the schools, but I think it needs to come out, the kids being involved and doing the mock elections.
It's great for them to get the enthusiasm and the excitement and talk to their parents, I mean from grade school through junior high and high school and just utilizing the Fort Hays students that are out there and wanting to be involved in civic leadership.
They're in campaign finance courses and campaign management courses, and we have a great resource to use there, and I would love to tap into that.
HDN: With a big election coming up, and dropping voter turnout numbers on election day, do you have any ideas that could bring more citizens to the polls?
DS: As a county clerk, I feel it's important to get out into the communities. I would think that civic groups, clubs, organizations, they would all enjoy having a guest speaker.
Usually they're scrambling for agenda items, and so I think it's not everybody just reads the newspaper.
So you've got to reach out to other areas and I think it's just people contact. That would be a big push.
Also, one thing that I have started myself is I have my own Web page right now, it's dottiestaab.com.
It's kind of a preview of what I, if I were elected county clerk, what type of Web page I would design and what kind of information. It has information as far as the polling locations, it's very user-friendly.
And that's what I think is important too. Almost all of us, you need access 24/7, because we all run on different time schedules.
When it's convenient for us to call to get answers, a lot of times the clerk's office isn't open.
So if you have that access at your disposal 24/7, I think that's very important. It's a user-friendly public information resource, the Internet.
Another thing, and I need to research this too, in visiting with, especially the older population for those people that are in their homes, I had one lady ask me about the advance voting.
She said her friend in Russell County always gets her advance ballot mailed to her and she doesn't have to request it each and every time.
I think we need to be more customer-friendly and more aggressive in getting people excited and the information to them.
And if they want the information definitely continue.
I think there has to be other resources too, because, in doing my door-to-door campaigning I found voter files that I'm able to pull from, they need to be updated big time.
I'm finding houses with people listed who are deceased. I have numerous parents complain about having requested that their children be removed that are no longer at home.
People that have moved years ago are still in those voter files.
I think really cleaning up the voter files.
I would see, and I know it's expensive, but an occasional totally mail-out ballot. I think it would verify a lot of information real quick when those come back to you.
HDN: More specifically, any ideas of how to encourage more participation from FHSU students?
DS: "I think reaching out to them. I work at the university.
I've been at the university now for almost 15 years. I know faculty, I know the staff.
I try to stay on top of the events, the activities. I attend the American Democracy, I try to keep up on the projects the American Democracy is working on.
Especially their lunches, where they have guest speakers come in. And that would be another thing.
It's amazing -- we need to reach out to the young people because we've got to get the excitement there and let it carry through.
I think, I always think about attending a seminar a mission seminar one time, where they asked a show of hands of who was involved in different activities.
And then they asked the people who had raised their hands more than twice to raise their hands, and they were told shame on you, because if you keep asking the same people all the time, you're not giving other people an opportunity.
And I think so often people would like to help and they'd like to do things, but if you don't approach them and ask them, they're never going to come to you. You have to go to them.
They're not going to come to you. I think it's not being afraid to ask and not being afraid to reach out.
And the worst thing they're going to do is say no. And that's OK.
I think it's not being afraid to ask and not being afraid to reach out.
And that's after hours, that's as a salaried employee you do your 40-plus hours and whatever it takes to do your job and to do it well, those are the hours you put into it.
It's never just an 8 to 5 job. To me it's 24 hours. Whatever I'm passionate about at the time, that's my drive.
HDN: Does it make sense to conduct mail-in voting on occasion? If so, under what circumstances? Do you believe this system is efficient?
DS: I think an excellent one right now is the Hadley building issue right now. I know the petitions are going around to request it be put to a vote and I feel that's important.
I think an issue like that of that magnitude and that scale, that so many people are talking about, you want to get, you want to have everybody voting and I think the best way is... Statistics show the best and most productive elections are those that are done by mail-out ballots because you get the biggest response, the biggest participation.
And I think it's a great way to clean up your voter file too. If it comes back, you get on the phone and find out.
It's a lot of work, but I think once it's cleaned up, it gets less and less each time.
HDN: And you believe the mail-out ballot system would be efficient?
DS: I think it's very much so.
It reaches out to those that maybe can't or don't know how to do the advance ballots, or it's easy to forget things.
It's there, it's done, it's ready to just be mailed back. And I think the participation is high.
HDN: Another issue of importance is the county budget. What are your thoughts on current county spending? Any thoughts on how, as county clerk, department changes could be made?
DS: I haven't honestly researched that.
One thing, I come from a management position. That's what I do. I have my years of management experience, utilizing your payroll to make sure that the money you're spending is being productive.
There are things that I would see that need to be changed. Money-wise, I'd have to do more researching.
For example, just the keeping of all the documentation. To go up and to have to look something up, you have to go to all the books.
I think, moving forward, it should be scanned. It should be digitally kept on a file. I think it would make it easier for people to go search the information, to source the information.
From what I understand, the ability's there. It takes people to do it, but you assign it and you get it done.
If it's you that has to do it, spending hours as a salaried employee after hours, every day, you just utilize what you have and you make it productive.
That's something I would look really close at. I haven't worked in a clerk's office. I don't know.
I feel it's important too that the people should be able to access that budget.
You can go to the library and you can request copies, I understand, but I feel all of that should be on a Web page.
I feel everything that's public record that's allowable by law to be put to the Internet, because I think it should be, and I think that resource should be there.
I think it would cut down a lot on... people can just do it themselves and I think that would save money.
Those would be, I guess, department changes I would see as being made.
The issue with the space, seeing what I've seen, and not really knowing all the details of the job, but you see all those records and all those files.
You think of accounting offices, you think of attorney offices, they have everything on disks, on zip drives, electronically filed.
Then you still can keep your records but you store them, they're in a storage area to resource if you have to go back there.
The county clerk is responsible for the agenda for the county commission and takes the minutes, and to me all of that should also be on the Web page.
The agenda should be posted so people are aware of what's going on far in advance.
Not everybody reads the newspaper. I look at channel 8 occasionally and the city commission posts all their stuff there, it's so wonderful.
It's amazing how many people resource those avenues as well, and rely on that for obtaining information.
And I think those are things that gets the word out and makes people aware.
HDN: Do you believe there's enough space in the current office for operations? What needs to be done?
DS: There again, by putting it to electric file.
I don't understand all of the issues right now with the space. I've heard bits and pieces.
I understand the court system has just grown tremendously and there's a security issue with them having to bring prisoners in when the public's there and all those things.
But I haven't really researched it enough to know and understand what's going on.
I feel, just in the clerk's office alone, and in the register of deeds, I would think you could eliminate 30 percent of the space that's being used by putting it to the digital format.
HDN: What other issues of importance, or possible changes, do you foresee if elected?
DS: One of my things was saying getting the clerk's office out of the courthouse, and I was worried people would think that I meant I was really in favor of the Hadley Center.
Meaning, to get out and be known. I want people to know who the county clerk is. That is another thing that has amazed me when I'm out campaigning.
People will say, 'well, who is the county clerk?'
You should know who your county clerk is. I mean, people may get sick of me, but I think you need to be visible in the community, you need to be a resource, and you need to have an open-door policy where people feel really comfortable.
And I know they have a Web site and you are able to e-mail and they do have that contact. But I think, coming from the area that I come from, in the management, one of our, being in retail business is of customer service.
And I guess that's what I want to bring to the courthouse is great customer service.
The public is changing. The way people do business, the resources people use, and we need to take advantage and bring the courthouse up to what is currently the most important to the citizens, what they want.
And I think that's, again, through the Web pages getting out into the community. Going and talking to the classrooms, instructors all the time too. Fort Hays would love to have you come and talk to their classrooms.
I've done it. I've gone on several occasions for other things when I'm asked.
And I think, I'm not a great public speaker, I am not a polished politician, I am not a politician.
I am someone that wants to make a difference. I want to bring common sense to the courthouse.
I want to bring unity.
I think it needs to be the hub, it needs to be the center of all the activities.
And I think, sometimes in looking at the different budgets that I've seen, it's confusing.
I think there needs to be a systematic way of compiling it so it's easy to read. For the common citizen to come out and understand it, putting it in terms that I, as a citizen, can understand.
Sometimes I think about, in business, how each group has their own terminology, almost their own language, and sometimes you have to remember that outside of that environment, people aren't understanding your language and you need to be speaking a language they understand.
HDN: Why did you decide to run for county clerk?
DS: Five years ago, I would have never thought I'd be doing something like this. Ever.
To run for public office, I would have thought I'd be the last person to do that.
I love people, I love listening to people, I love interacting with people.
And when, over the last several years, people complaining about the confusion of the voting and the comments that we need to get somebody in there, we need to get somebody to run, why hasn't anybody stepped forward.
Sometimes you just have to be the one that says I'm running for a change. I'm tired of people complaining.
Let's see if they really want a change. If they're happy with the experience they've had, fantastic.
If they're ready for a change, then I think the election will tell what the voters are wanting, the citizens are wanting.
Staab's contact information:
(785) 735-VOTE (8683)
dottie.staab@gmail.com