Kansas
Kansas Secretary of State offers advice for voters casting ballots through mail
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab says voters should have confidence in the security of this year’s elections, but voters casting their ballot by mail will want to pay extra attention.
As of the end of the day on Oct. 28, Schwab’s office had mailed out 157,705 ballots to voters across Kansas, with 68,410 of them returned so far.
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Jessica McMaster
Schwab has been paying close attention to mail-in ballots since the August primary when roughly 1,000 ballots were never counted because the United States Postal Service failed to postmark the ballots by the required deadline.
The instance led to a back-and-forth between Schwab and USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Schwab eventually described the conversations as “productive.”
He said it’s best if voters place their ballots in a drop box or hand deliver them to their local elections office.
RELATED | Voters should have plan if using mail ballots in general election
“Take Liberal, Kansas, for example. The clerk’s office is across the street from the post office,” Schwab said. “You put it (ballot) in the blue drop box that’s owned by the feds, it goes to either Lubbock, Texas, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Kansas City, to hopefully show up across the street. Or, you can just put it in the drop box across the street, which is way more secure.”
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For Kansas voters who mail their ballots, they can check the status of their vote on votekansas.gov.
If the ballot hasn’t arrived by Election Day, Schwab said to vote twice.
“There’s a ballot tracker to see if they got your ballot at the county, and if they haven’t, then go vote Election Day and they’ll give you a provisional,” Schwab said. “If the ballot shows up in the grace period, that counts. If it doesn’t, then the provisional counts. Either way, you get to vote.”
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Tuesday, Oct. 29, marked the last day voters could apply for an advanced voting mail ballot.
Other important deadlines are available on the Secretary of State’s website.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Bates County Circuit Court judge Friday sentenced a Linn County, Kansas, man in connection with the December 2025 death of Airen Andula, 13.
Damon Leonard, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison for abandonment of a corpse, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to the charge of abandoning a corpse on May 22.
Andula disappeared from his Pleasanton, Kansas, home on Dec. 21, 2025. A day later, law enforcement found the boy’s body in a ravine in Bates County, Missouri. He had died from multiple dog bite injuries.
Police were led to the boy’s body after a phone call from Leonard.
Court documents said Leonard “admitted that he transported the deceased child from Kansas to Missouri and left the body in the bottom of the creek” before he returned home.
KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva spoke with Andula’s family earlier this week — after the guilty plea and ahead of Friday’s sentencing.
His family shared that the guilty plea brought a small sense of justice, but it didn’t do much to ease the pain of their loss.
READ MORE | Family of Airen Andula speaks out ahead of sentencing
“We’re missing our kid every day of our lives,” the boy’s father Charles Andula told Silva.
Leonard received credit for time served of 158 days in his sentence, per court records.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – It may not seem like a lot of relief, but gas and diesel prices have declined over the past week.
Friday morning’s national average for a gallon of unleaded gas was $4.39, according to the Automobile Association of America.
That’s down three cents from $4.42 on Thursday; down 16 cents from a week ago; but was up 17 cents from $4.22 a month ago and up $.23 from $3.16 a year ago.
In Kansas, AAA says, unleaded gas on Friday was averaging $3.96 a gallon — down four cents from $4.00 on Thursday; down 13 cents from $3.96 a week ago; but up 26 cents from $3.70 a month ago; and up $1.07 over $2.89 a year ago.
Diesel fuel also was dropping in price. AAA says Friday’s national average for a gallon of diesel was $5.52 a gallon — down three cents from $5.55 on Thursday; down 12 cents from $5.64 a week a go; but up six cents from $5.46 a month ago and up $1.98 from $3.54 a year ago.
Kansas diesel fuel prices, according to AAA, checked in at an average of $4.98 on Friday. That’s five cents below $5.03 on Thursday; down 16 cents from $5.14 a week ago; but up 24 cents over $4.74 a month ago; and up $1.72 from $3.26 a year ago.
In Topeka, GasBuddy.com on Friday morning showed unleaded gas prices ranging between $3.77 and $4.09 in Topeka, with diesel fuel going for between $4.94 and $5.29 a gallon.
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