• Kansas Republicans are pushing to repeal the state’s three-day grace period for mail ballots.
• The bill is expected to be vetoed by the Democratic governor, but Republicans likely have the votes to override.
• Proponents of the bill cite concerns about voter fraud, while opponents argue it will disenfranchise voters.
• Data from the 2024 election shows that over 2,000 mail ballots were received during the grace period and counted.

Kansas Republican lawmakers are getting close to repealing the three-day grace period for mail ballots, a law that was broadly popular when it was enacted eight years ago.

The Republican-led Legislature has passed Senate Bill 4, sending it to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk. While the bill faces a likely veto, the GOP supermajorities appear to have the votes for an override.

Under Kansas election law, voters are allowed to advance vote by mail. As long as they are postmarked by Election Day, the ballots can be counted if they are delivered within three days.

That three-day grace period would be repealed by SB 4, meaning all mail ballots would have to arrive by 7 p.m. Election Day in order to be counted. The proposed change would take effect in 2026.

What lawmakers say about repealing grace period

That law was enacted in 2017 with bipartisan support in a near-unanimous Legislature. It had the backing of then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who said the motivation behind the law was concern about mail delays.

“Our opposition to this bill is simple: it’s wrong for the government to throw out votes for no good reason,” said Davis Hammett, president of Loud Light Civic Action, in a statement. “That is the only thing this bill would do if passed into law — throw out Kansans’ valid ballots because of slow mail. Mail delays are a government failure — a failure that this same legislature, with near unanimous support, voted to help fix in 2017 when they added additional mail processing days for ballots cast on election day to arrive.”

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said during floor debate last month that mail processing problems “have honestly only gotten worse” since 2017.

But Republicans have largely flipped their view after mail voting was politicized following President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

Sen. Bill Clifford, R-Garden City, said that he believes Kansas has secure elections. But after previously supporting the three-day grace period, he said he changed his mind out of concerned that the perception of fraud will dampen voter turnout.

“Being a party chair in western Kansas of the Republican Party, I certainly have to deal with individuals who still think there’s fraud in Kansas elections,” Clifford said. “Although I would disagree with that, that perception is the reality for many voters.”

Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, is the chair of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. He cited a federal appeals court ruling from a different circuit than Kansas where the judges found that grace periods for mail ballots are unconstitutional. The ruling doesn’t apply to Kansas.

“That gives us additional justification for eliminating this three-day grace period,” Thompson said.

Sen. Brenda Dietrich, R-Topeka, was the only Senate Republican to vote against the bill.

“I voted no on that,” Dietrich said while speaking to Greater Topeka Partnership officials last month. “I have 22 nursing homes, and that’s too important to them.”

Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Leavenworth, is the chair of the House Elections Committee.

“Voter confidence that the results of our elections reflect their will, that every vote is counted, lies at the very heart of our form of government and our way of life,” Proctor said in a statement. “According to the Secretary of State, the three-day grace period disenfranchised as many as a thousand voters last year. Joining the 32 states that have decided that Election Day should be Election Day is a positive step toward restoring voter confidence and ensuring every vote is counted in Kansas.”

Rep. Alexis Simmons, D-Topeka, is a member of the House Elections Committee.

“Election misinformation is the true cause of any issue with voter confidence,” Simmons said in a statement. “This bill was passed through a campaign of election misinformation, in part because of the chairman’s continued peddling of fake data. The Secretary of State’s Office has shared the data they collected about the issues Rep. Proctor raised during this debate and there is no evidence to back up his claims.

“In fact, the data shows the opposite of what Rep. Proctor is saying. Very clearly, the 3-day mail processing period protects Kansans who rely on mail voting from being disenfranchised due to slow mail. I am particularly concerned about this due to the recent news that Elon Musk’s absurd DOGE efforts will soon be focused on slicing and dicing the USPS.”

How many mail ballots benefit from 3-day grace period?

Eliminating the three-day grace period could mean that thousands of votes are not counted in future elections.

Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office provided lawmakers with data from the 2024 general election in Kansas.

There were 163,405 mail ballots sent out, of which 147,359 were returned by the voter.

Of that, 2,110 ballots were received during the three-day grace period after Election Day. Those ballots were counted.

There were 603 ballots received after the grace period. Those ballots weren’t counted. Neither were 104 ballots received after Election Day that didn’t have a postmark.

The Secretary of State’s Office remained neutral on SB 4, but provided lawmakers with a summary of arguments for and against. It also lobbied to keep ballot drop boxes as an option for voters.

Ann Mah, a former Topeka lawmaker and former member of the Kansas State Board of Education, testified about statistics she got from the Shawnee County Election Office. In the 2020 election, there were 217 mail ballots received during the three-day grace period. In the 2022 election, there were 291 ballots.

“If passed, this bill would likely disenfranchise thousands of voters across the state of Kansas,” Mah said.

Republicans likely have veto-proof majorities for expected veto

While the governor is expected to veto the bill, Republicans likely have the votes for an override.

The Senate passed SB 4 on Thursday with a 30-10 vote, which is three above the supermajority needed for an override. One Republican sided with the Democrats.

A week before, the House passed the bill 80-39. While the House was four votes shy of a veto-proof supermajority, there were four Republicans absent that day — all four of whom previously voted to repeal the three-day grace period in 2023. There were four Republicans who sided with Democrats.

In 2023, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 209 to repeal the three-day grace period, but failed to override Kelly’s veto. The governor raised concerns for voters in the military.

In her veto message, Kelly said it would “likely result in too many rural Kansans not having their votes counted in important elections. That is unacceptable. We should be doing everything we can to make it easier — not harder — for Kansans to make their voices heard at the ballot box.”

More: Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes election law change critics worry could hurt mail voting in Kansas

The Senate mustered 25 votes for an override, two short of a supermajority. While the override attempt did not make it to the House for a vote, that chamber had 76 votes to pass the bill, which would have been eight short of the number needed to override a veto.

Republicans tried again in 2024, but the Senate GOP sank their own three-day grace period repeal bill by anchoring down the already controversial proposal with even more controversial proposals. The additions made it a sweeping bill to ban ballot drop boxes and ban electronic voting machines, among other provisions. The bill failed to pass because several Republicans sided with Democrats.

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.