Kansas
Conspiracies hinder GOP's efforts in Kansas to cut the time for returning mail ballots
TOPEKA, Kan. — A repeating of baseless election conspiracy theories in the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature appears to have scuttled GOP lawmakers’ efforts this year to shorten the time that voters have to return mail ballots.
The state Senate was set to take a final vote Tuesday on a bill that would eliminate the three extra days after polls close for voters to get mail ballots back to their local election offices. Many Republicans argue that the so-called grace period undermines confidence in the state’s election results, though there’s no evidence of significant problems from the policy.
During a debate Monday, GOP senators rewrote the bill so that it also would ban remote ballot drop boxes — and, starting next year, bar election officials from using machines to count ballots. Ballot drop boxes and tabulating machines have been targets across the U.S. as conspiracy theories have circulated widely within the GOP and former President Donald Trump has promoted the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
The Senate’s approval of the bill would send it to the House, but the bans on vote-tabulating machines and remote ballot drop boxes all but doom it there. Ending the grace period for mail ballots already was an iffy proposition because Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly opposes the idea, and GOP leaders didn’t have the two-thirds majority necessary to override her veto of a similar bill last year.
Some Republicans had hoped they could pass a narrow bill this year and keep the Legislature’s GOP supermajorities together to override a certain Kelly veto.
“This isn’t a vote that’s going to secure our election,” Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, said Monday, arguing against the ban on vote-tabulation machines. “It’s going to put an anchor around the underlying bill.”
Trump’s false statements and his backers’ embrace of the unfounded idea that American elections are rife with problems have split Republicans. In Kansas, the state’s top election official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, is a conservative Republican, but he’s repeatedly vouched for the integrity of the state’s elections and promoted ballot drop boxes.
Kansas state Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, speaks in favor of a bill that would eliminate the extra three days after an election that voters have to return mail ballots, Monday, March 4, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. Thompson chairs the Senate committee that handled the bill, and Republicans have added provisions to ban remote ballot drop boxes and vote-tabulating machines. Credit: AP/John Hanna
Schwab is neutral on whether Kansas should eliminate its three-day grace period, a policy lawmakers enacted in 2017 over concerns that the U.S. Postal Service’s processing of mail was slowing.
More than 30 states require mail ballots to arrive at election offices by Election Day to be counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and their politics vary widely. Among the remaining states, the deadlines vary from 5 p.m. the day after polls close in Texas to no set deadline in Washington state.
Voting rights advocates argue that giving Kansas voters less time to return their ballots could disenfranchise thousands of them and particularly disadvantage poor, disabled and older voters and people of color. Democratic Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, of Wichita, the Senate’s only Black woman, said she was offended by comments suggesting that ending the grace period would not be a problem for voters willing to follow the rules.
“It makes it harder for people to vote — period,” she said.
Kansas state Sens. Beverly Gossage, left, R-Eudora, and Virgil Peck, right, R-Havana, confer ahead of a debate on a bill that would eliminate the extra three days after an election that voters have to return their mail ballots, Monday, March 4, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. Both senators support provisions added to the bill to ban remote ballot drop boxes and the use of machines in tabulating votes. Credit: AP/John Hanna
In the House, its Republican Elections Committee chair, Rep. Pat Proctor, said he would have the panel expand early voting by three days to make up for the shorter deadline.
Proctor said Monday that there’s no appetite in the House for banning or greatly restricting ballot drop boxes.
“Kansans that are not neck-deep in politics — they see absolutely no issue with voting machines and, frankly, neither do I,” he said.
During the Senate’s debate, conservative Republicans insisted that electronic tabulating machines can be manipulated, despite no evidence of it across the U.S. They brushed aside criticism that returning to hand-counting would take the administration of elections back decades.
They also incorrectly characterized mysterious letters sent in November to election offices in Kansas and at least four other states — including some containing the dangerous opioid fentanyl — as ballots left in drop boxes.
Sen. Mark Steffen, a conservative Republican from central Kansas, told his colleagues during Monday’s debate that Masterson’s pitch against banning vote-tabulating machines was merely an “incredibly, beautifully verbose commitment to mediocrity.”
“I encourage us to be strong,” he said. “We know what’s right.”
Kansas
Kansas City barbecue pitmaster Arthur Lee Sr. killed in hit-and-run crash while riding his scooter
KSHB 41 reporter La’Nita Brooks covers stories providing solutions and offering discussions on topics of crime and violence. She also covers stories in the Northland. Share your story idea with La’Nita.
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Kansas City barbecue pitmaster Arthur Lee Sr. was killed in an early morning hit-and-run crash while riding his scooter March 21.
Kansas City barbecue pitmaster Arthur Lee Sr. killed in hit-and-run crash
Lee was turning left from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard onto Eastwood Trafficway when a car ran a red light and hit him. A small memorial now grows at the intersection.
Chris Morrison
“Devastated. Everybody’s hurt, it was really unexpected,” his son Arthur Lee Jr. said. “I loved him to death. My dad was like my best friend.”
Lee was well known in the barbecue community, working as a pitmaster at Gates Bar-B-Q for the past eight years after spending two decades at Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque.
“He loved working at Gates,” Rose Qualls, Lee’s sister-in-law, said. “He was always making us slabs and turkey sandwiches.”
Chris Morrison
The morning of the incident, Lee was preparing to move into a new home with his wife and children, getting ready for a fresh start before a tragic end.
“He was really special, you know. He was one of a kind and everybody that he was around just loved him,” Qualls said. “It’s just a sad situation.”
Lee was 60 years old. His family said while his life was cut short, his flame will burn forever.
“My sister, she is really going through it, we all are,” Qualls said. “And I’m here for her, whatever she needs, when she need a shoulder to cry on, I’m here.”
Courtesy of Arthur Lee Jr.
The family is pleading for answers and for the driver, who fled the scene, to come forward.
“I would pray that they would have some type of compassion, some type of heart, possibly turn themselves in,” Lee Jr. said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced to 120 months in prison for selling methamphetamine to an undercover police officer, according to the United State’s Attorney.
According to court documents, Wayne F. Fleming, 41, of Wichita pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of a controlled substance.
In May 2021, Fleming sold drugs multiple times to an undercover officer with the Wichita Police Department. Testing by the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center showed the total amount Fleming sold to the officer to be more than 200 grams of pure methamphetamine.
“Mr. Fleming was federally indicted in 2021, but before a plea agreement was reached, Mr. Fleming went to state prison to serve time for offenses unrelated to the federal case,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser. “The Department of Justice doesn’t forget. Not long after his release from a state prison, Mr. Fleming is now an inmate in a federal prison.”
The Wichita Police Department investigated the case.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (KCTV) – A Kansas inmate will spend more time behind bars after a dispute over an extra slice of pizza turned physical.
Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson announced on Wednesday, March 25, that Wyatt C. Parnell, 42, an inmate at Lansing Correctional Facility, was sentenced to 16 additional months.
Prosecutors indicated that the sentence is the result of an attempt to assault a corrections officer during a December 2019 dining hall confrontation.
What Happened
Court records noted that the incident happened around 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 26, 2019 – the day after Christmas – in the facility’s maximum-security dining room.
According to prosecutors, Parnell entered the dining hall, picked up a dinner tray and grabbed an extra slice of pizza from a separate tray.
A corrections officer repeatedly ordered him to put the tray down and leave the area; however, court documents revealed that Parnell refused.
When the officer moved to retrieve the tray and again ordered Parnell to leave, prosecutors said he yanked the tray away and threw it on the floor.
Parnell then tried to push past the officer to reach the serving line for another tray, according to court records.
The officer reported that they attempted to detain Parnell, but he resisted, leading to a physical fight.
The Charges & Sentence
Court records indicated that Parnell pleaded no contest to attempted aggravated battery. His new sentence will run consecutively – meaning it is added to the sentence he is already serving.
“Correctional facilities rely on order and compliance to maintain safety for both staff and inmates,” Thompson said. “This sentence reflects the seriousness of disregarding lawful commands and engaging in behavior that puts others at risk.”
Parnell’s Criminal History
Corrections records show that Parnell was already serving time for:
- Kidnapping
- Aggravated battery
- Two counts of criminal threat
Prison records also show a lengthy disciplinary history, including violations for:
- Contraband possession
- Fighting
- Threats
- Lewd acts
- Entering restricted areas
Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.
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