Advance voting locations statewide and in Topeka are experiencing a surge of people voting early in-person.

Shawnee County election commissioner Andrew Howell said that, as of around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, 17,800 voters had voted early in-person so far this election.

“We’re not quite double, but it’s — depending on which year you compare it to — it is double to some years,” Howell told The Capital-Journal.

“In a presidential (election), 10,000 to 12,000 for the entire two-week period is a fairly average number,” he said. “So I suspect that we’re going to be double what we normally see here. Over 3,000 people the first day. It’s a rare day in the past that we do 1,500 a day.”

The Shawnee County Election Office was busy Wednesday morning with early voters. One of those early voters was Gov. Laura Kelly. When voting early in other recent elections, Kelly has often been one of only a small handful of voters filling out their ballots. This time, several of the booths were filled.

“I think there’s a lot of energy and excitement around the races this year, particularly obviously at the presidential level, but I think even locally on the state level,” Kelly said of the turnout.

“I come out to vote early so that I make sure I get it done,” she told reporters. “It is fun to come to the polls on Election Day. I used to enjoy that a lot, but there’s always a chance that something — you know, ice storms or whatever — could happen. So I like to get it done.”

Early in-person voting is up in Kansas

Election offices across the state are experiencing a similar boom in in-person advance voting.

The Kansas Secretary of State’s Office reported that, through Tuesday, there had been 252,482 ballots statewide had been cast in person.

That’s 54% above 2020, when there had been 163,527 in-person advance ballots at this point. It’s 80% above 2016, when there had been 139,912 early in-person voters.

More: Saline County residents are voting early in droves, averaging 700 a day

Mail voting lags behind

While in-person is up, mail voting is down locally and statewide.

“Mail is down,” Howell said. “What I don’t know if people that normally vote by mail are now just coming and voting early, I wonder.”

Mail voting has also been the subject of criticism from some Republicans after former President Donald Trump in 2020 discouraged Republicans from voting by mail. He called voting by mail “corrupt” and alleged it led to cheating. Some Kansas Republican lawmakers have sought to end the three-day grace period.

Secretary of State’s Office statistics also show that Democrats are leading Republicans in voting by mail.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Scott Schwab has been critical of the U.S. Postal Service’s handling of election mail, blaming USPS failures for disenfranchising voters in the August primary.

More: Scott Schwab ’empathetic’ to USPS issues but says voters shouldn’t rely on it

Kansas election offices had mailed out 161,410 advance ballots through Tuesday, of which 87,600 had already been returned, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Compared to this point in the last two presidential elections: In 2020 — in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — there had been 501,446 mail ballots sent with 279,950 returned, and in 2016, there had been 191,307 sent with 102,130 returned.

At least on the state level, the total number of early ballots cast in-person plus mail ballots that have been delivered so far in 2024 outpaces 2016 by about 41%. But it doesn’t outpace 2020, when mail voting skyrocketed during the pandemic.

So far this year, 340,082 advance ballots have been cast. At this point in 2020, there had been a total of 443,477 ballots, including both returned mail ballots and in-person voting. In 2016, there had been 242,042 in total.

‘Don’t wait’ until last minute to vote early

Voters in Kansas can vote early by mail and in-person, or they can wait until Election Day. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Early in-person voting will continue until Monday. This week, voters can go to the Shawnee County Election Office at 3420 S.W. Van Buren Street between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays. Next week, voters can go between 8 a.m. and noon on Monday.

“Please, if you’re going to vote early, don’t wait until noon on Monday, because there will be a line,” Howell said. “We’ve managed to keep it under five minutes on average. Most people it’s two minutes or less, but occasionally it’ll get a five-minute line. Monday at 11 o’clock, there will be a line, and it will be significant.”

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Applebee’s, once a major player in the Kansas City-area restaurant scene, announced Wednesday that eight restaurants owned by franchisees are closed, with only two remaining in the area.

“Applebee’s restaurants are independently owned and operated by franchisees,” said Tony Moralejo, president of Applebee’s. “The closure of eight restaurants in the Kansas City market look to be the result of financial circumstances and decisions made by the franchisee. This situation is unfortunate, and we continue to believe the Kansas City area is a great neighborhood for Applebee’s restaurants. We are exploring options about the future of these restaurants. Two Applebee’s restaurants continue to serve our guests in the Kansas City area.”

The restaurants still open are in Blue Springs at 1100 Northwest Missouri 7 Highway and in Gladstone at 6069 Antioch Road.

KSHB 41 received an email from a former employee who woke up to this message at 6:25 a.m. — “We regret to inform you that, effective immediately, the Applebee’s location where you are employed has permanently closed. You will be paid for all hours worked through October 29, 2024, with your final paycheck issued on November 12, 2024. For more details, please visit this link.”

The former employee stated in the email that the link was blank.

They also were not offered severance pay or jobs at the remaining restaurants.

Abe Gustin and John Hamra opened their first Applebee’s franchise in Kansas City, Missouri, under the restaurant’s new name — Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar.

By 1992, the company had 100 restaurants and in 2000, Applebee’s opened its 1,000th restaurant in Aurora, Colorado, according to the company’s history on its website.

Gustin and Hamra bought the company from W.R. Grace in 1988 and it went public in 1989, according to the company’s history. The 100th restaurant opened in 1992 in Nashville.

IHOP Corp. bought the company in 2007, creating the largest full-service restaurant company in the world.

Applebee’s corporate headquarters is in Pasadena, California.

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Severe storms, which may include high winds and tornadoes, are expected Wednesday in north-central and northeast Kansas, forecasters say.

The National Weather Service has upgraded from “slight” to “enhanced” the possibility those areas will see severe storms, which forecasters say will be most likely between 4 and 10 p.m.

“Thunderstorms will develop along a cold front as it moves southeast across the area today,” the weather service said in a graphic posted on the website of its Topeka office. “The potential hazards with the storms include damaging winds, a few tornadoes and hail.”

Forecasters have high confidence that north-central and northeast Kansas will see thunderstorms, that website said.

Storms may start as early as 11 a.m. over north-central Kansas, with the severe weather threat there beginning about 1 p.m., it said.

“Damaging winds are the most likely hazard,” the website said. “But there may be enough ingredients for a strong tornado or two.”

The site added: “The risk for tornadoes is a low probability/high impact setup in that it’s not ideal, but there are enough ingredients to be on alert. Storms are most likely going to move together in a line and the tornado concern is for spin-ups with the line of storms.”

Forecasters predicted Wednesday’s threat would be medium to high for high winds, medium for tornadoes, low to medium for hail and low for flooding.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.