Kansas election officials urge remaining mail-in voters to skip post office, drop ballots off at drop box

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) – If you plan to vote by mail in Kansas, but haven’t sent your ballot back yet, you may have some work to do. Kansas election officials say it’s too late to put your ballot in the mail.

“If you drop it in the mail, there is no guarantee when it’s coming back,” said Michael Abbott, Wyandotte County’s election commissioner.

Instead, election officials are telling the remaining mail-in voters to drop off their ballots at designated drop boxes.

“If you drop it at a drop box, we’re going to pick it up the same day. If you [drop it off] at a polling location, it’s coming back to the election office the same day,” Abbott said. “That’s the best way to do it.”

The Kansas Secretary of State’s office agrees.

ELECTION GUIDE: What Missouri, Kansas voters need to know before heading to the polls

“Secretary Schwab encourages voters to return their ballot as soon as possible,” Scott Schwab’s office told KCTV5 in a statement Thursday. “As always, the better choice is to return your ballot via county-monitored drop box, in-person at your county election office, or any polling place within the county.”

The drop boxes are checked daily by a member of both major parties. The ballots are then taken directly to the county’s election headquarters.

“We have a team, a bi-partisan team, that checks them every single day,” Abbott said. “There is a Democrat and a Republican. They go out and check the drop boxes and bring the ballots back to our office.”

This year, Wyandotte County sent out around 7,000 mail-in ballots and has had about 5,000 returned. The county says it is on pace for a strong turnout among all voters.

“In 2020, I think it was a little over 70,000 ballots cast. Right now, we’re a little under 19,400,” Abbott said. “We’re tracking to do between 60-70% turnout right now.”

If you are a Kansas mail-in voter and would like to find a ballot drop box near you, click on one of these links:

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