ShawneeDispatch.com

Shawnee City Council and mayoral candidates hope to get the support of voters, but when it comes to their own visits to the polls, their attendance varies.

According to records the Dispatch obtained from the Johnson County Election Office, incumbents in this year's city elections tend to have better voting habits than their challengers, though only one has a perfect voting record this decade.

The Dispatch analyzed voting records since 2000, or since the candidate moved to Shawnee, for each of the nine remaining city candidates.

Johnson County Election Office records show that since 2000, there have been 25 elections in which Shawnee residents could vote. Eight applied to only certain Shawnee residents. But in most primary elections, both Republicans and Democrats had a seat to vote for, or there were countywide issues on the ballot.

Records show that among mayoral candidates, incumbent Jeff Meyers missed just two opportunities to vote. Each was a spring primary to narrow three candidates to two for the Shawnee Mission USD 512 Board of Education at-large seat, one in 2003 and then in 2005.

Dan Pflumm did not vote in at least eight elections, missing the same primaries as Meyers.

Most recently, Pflumm did not vote in the spring 2007 primary election for Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees and the general election for the same candidates, as well as the Shawnee Mission school board and Local Option Budget increase.

Pflumm also didn't vote in August primaries in 2000. 2004 and 2006, nor in the Shawnee City Council election in 2000.

Cheryl Scott, incumbent and now lone candidate for Ward I, has missed four elections since 2000. She missed the 2003 spring primary and general elections for Shawnee Mission school board and the 2007 spring elections for the school district and JCCC.

Neal Sawyer, Ward II incumbent, has only one blemish in the past eight years in his voting records: He did not participate in the 2003 primary for Shawnee Mission's at-large school board seat.

But records for his opponent, Ron Weigel, show at least 11 missed opportunities to vote. though his records show three elections in which he voted Republican. He has voted in all other state and national primary and general elections.

Weigel, who said he moved to Shawnee in 1993, also has voted in only one election for Shawnee City Council, in 2006.

In Ward III, challenger Bob Dyche did not vote in 13 elections. Dyche, who ran for De Soto School Board last April, most recently did not vote in De Soto's September mail-in bond issue ballot.

Dyche, who has lived in Ward III since June 30, 2000, also has not voted in a Shawnee City Council race since then. He did vote in all November general elections and in the school board elections last year.

The incumbent, Dawn Kuhn, has lived in Shawnee since late 2003, meaning she could not have voted in the Spring 2003 elections, and records show that her voting record has been perfect ever since.

Ward IV's challenger, Frank Imgrund, also has not voted in 13 elections, most recently missing the spring 2007 elections for Shawnee Mission school board and JCCC trustees. He voted in the city's 2004 and 2006 Council elections, though he missed the Ward IV primary in 2006. Primaries make up the bulk of the elections Imgrund has missed, and he didn't vote in city elections in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Meanwhile, incumbent Mickey Sandifer's voting record is perfect with the exception of the year 2000, when he missed two elections, the August primary and the April city election.