Grain growers in central 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 November 30, 2022, filing deadline.
The 2023 election will cover districts four, five, and six; or the central third of Kansas.
- District Four includes Clay, Cloud, Jewell, Mitchell, Osborne, Ottawa, Phillips, Republic, Rooks, Smith and Washington counties.
- District Five includes Barton, Dickinson, Ellis, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Marion, McPherson, Rice, Rush, Russell and Saline counties.
- District Six includes Barber, Comanche, Edwards, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Pawnee, Pratt, Reno, Sedgwick, Stafford and Sumner counties.
To be eligible to run for any of the five commodity commissions, the candidate must have been actively engaged in growing that commodity (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 voters to be included on the 2023 ballot. No more than five signatures from any one county can be used to qualify a candidate. Eligible voters are Kansas residents who will reach age 18 before the election and who have grown corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers or wheat for the last three years.
Candidates may choose to complete their petition online, by paper, or a combination of both. The online portal is available at: www.agriculture.ks.gov/kgcvoter. Once the candidate has created an account and petition, the candidate will then have a unique URL to share with signors who can then enter their contact information and sign the petition.
Paper candidate registration packets are also available from the Kansas Department of Agriculture or directly from the grain commodity commissions.