Kansas GOP eyeing election changes, targeting drop boxes and mail votes

Takeaways:

• Only 19.7% of Kansans surveyed strongly agreed that the winner of statewide elections actually won.
• Bills, such as some requiring mail-in ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day and making all drop box ballots provisional, face strong opposition.
• Despite negligible instances of voter fraud, some lawmakers continue to advocate for stringent election measures.

Some bills moving through the Kansas Legislature could overhaul the way the state runs elections, including some slammed by opponents as “pure voter suppression.”

They target drop boxes and mail ballots, and some were killed in recent legislative sessions. But past lawmaking defeats won’t stop the Republicans who dominate the Statehouse and say confidence in voting is dropping.

One bill would limit who can send out advance ballot applications. Another would require every advance ballot to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day. That bill eliminates the current three-day grace period that allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to still count if they don’t arrive too late. A similar bill was vetoed last year.

A third proposal would require people dropping off multiple ballots at once to provide an ID so counties could then copy that information down. Then that person would need to produce a photo of them taken with the ballots they drop off. Kansas already limits the number of ballots people can drop off for others, but the bill would add extra regulation and was dubbed the “mugshot bill” by opponents.

Yet another bill would make any ballot put in a drop box provisional, which means the vote isn’t counted until the county election official confirms the voter’s identity. The methods to verify those identities weren’t clear, which led critics to suggest counties would have to call up to 70,000 people in the next election to count their votes.

The bills faced heavy opposition during hearings, including some opposition from Republicans like the secretary of state, sometimes having almost three times as many opponents as supporters. That’s common — past election bills made it all the way to the governor with minimal support from constituents.

Some of the election bills might die before getting a hearing. But Republicans say they’ll keep pushing because they see a crisis in voters’ confidence in the security of elections.

The 2023 Kansas Speaks survey by Fort Hays State University found that only 19.7% of respondents strongly agree that the winner of statewide elections actually won. Only 41.1% of respondents agree that fraud is not an issue in Kansas elections.

“If that gets any worse, people are going to stop deciding things by voting and start deciding things with guns,” said Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican.

Proctor, chair of the House Elections Committee, said voter confidence is the only data point that matters to him when considering election changes. He said he hasn’t seen so little confidence in election results before and that that has to change.

“If we don’t,” Proctor said, “we’re not gonna have a country anymore.”

The bills face opposition as vehement as the support, largely split along party lines. That might force Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to veto the measures that do clear the legislative gauntlet.

Some worry the efforts would backfire by undercutting the perceived fairness of elections or would jeopardize voters’ personal information. And some lawmakers question whether the proposed changes create too much expense that gets passed on to county election officials.

“All of these bills passing together would just be a fundamental overhauling of our election system that I can’t even fathom,” said Davis Hammet, executive director of voting rights advocacy group Loud Light.

The secretary of state’s office reports fewer than 10 cases of criminal voter fraud in the last few years. That office also went back to 1996 and didn’t find any cases of mail ballot fraud.

Hammet said unfounded election conspiracies propel the bills.

“Instead of educating voters on this, (some elected officials) fanned the flames,” Hammet said. “That’s a frustrating thing to deal with — trying to debunk the imaginary conspiracy.”

Other election bills draw less controversy.

The House Election Committee is considering creating a civilian oversight board to hear complaints about elections. The board, in theory, would make the complaint process more transparent. Another bill would try and crack down on AI misinformation in campaigns.

And a third bill would allow the secretary of state to create regulations for ballot drop boxes, like requiring cameras, something even the Kansas County Clerks & Election Officials Association support.

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