Registered voters who live in the USD 305 School District began receiving ballots this week for the first-ever mail in election in Salina.

About 28,000 ballots were delivered to the Salina Post Office last Friday. They began to go out in the mail on Monday, and started arriving in mailboxes on Tuesday. The ballots, which contain prepaid postage, can either be mailed to the county clerk’s office or personally delivered.

Saline County Clerk Don Merriman tells KSAL News that he has already started to receive ballots back at his office. He says that some of them are invalid, because there is no signature. Ballots returned in the mail must be in a signed envelope.

Merriman says that he has received some ballots back as “undeliverable” from the post office as well. Anyone who has not received a ballot, but believes they should have, should contact the Saline County Clerk’s Office.

Merriman is hoping for a 50-percent participation rate when all is said and done in the stand alone bond issue this April.

Back in December the USD 305 Board of Education approved a resolution to place a $110.7 million bond issue on the April 8, 2014 mail-in ballot.

The vote will address district needs including safety and security, all-day kindergarten, career and technical education and improvements at both high schools, plus storm shelters at all the schools.

Salina USD 305 Superintendent Dr. Bill Hall, who was out walking neighborhoods Thursday evening dropping off informational flyers on doors, tells KSAL News that a lot of people simply want to know how much is it going to increase their taxes. He says that for an owner of a home valued at $100,000 it will increase their taxes at $4.50 a month.

Salina USD 305 Superintendent Dr. Bill Hall was out walking neighborhoods Thursday evening dropping off informational flyers on doors