Kansas Dept. of Ag: Commodity Commission Candidates Face Nov. 30 Filing Deadline

MANHATTAN, Kansas — Grain growers in western Kansas who plan to campaign for a seat on one of the state’s five grain commodity commissions — corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat or sunflowers — should be gathering petition signatures now to meet the Nov. 30, 2020, filing deadline.

The 2021 election will cover districts I, II, and III; or the western third of Kansas.

District I includes Cheyenne, Decatur, Graham, Norton, Rawlins, Sheridan, Sherman, and Thomas counties. District II includes Gove, Greeley, Lane, Logan, Ness, Scott, Trego, Wallace, and Wichita counties. District III includes Clark, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Meade, Morton, Seward, Stanton, and Stevens counties.

To be eligible to run for any of the five commodity commissions, the candidate must have been actively engaged in growing corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat or sunflowers within the preceding five years and may only represent the district of their primary residence.

Candidates must gather 20 signatures from eligible growers to be included on the 2021 ballot. No more than five signatures from any one county can be used to qualify a candidate. Eligible growers are Kansas residents of legal voting age and who have grown corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers or wheat for the last three years.

New to this year’s election, candidates will have the option to create petitions and collect signatures online. The portal is available at: www.agriculture.ks.gov/kgcvoter. Once the candidate has created an account and petition, the candidate can share a unique URL to with signees who can then enter their contact information and sign the petition. Candidates may choose to complete their petition online, by paper, or a combination of both.

Paper candidate registration packets are also available from the Kansas Department of Agriculture or the grain commodity commissions.