Summary
Federal & state elections on the ballot: US Senator, 4 US House members, Governor, and State Senate and House members
Ballot measures:
The Kansas Division of Elections, part of the Secretary of State, oversees all Kansas elections.
OnAir Post: Kansas Votes in 2024
News
Kansas Reflector, – October 24, 2021
A former Republican election official is calling out lawmakers from both parties for harmful, partisan framing of election policy issues rather than focusing on joint solutions to improve voting.
In more than nine years serving as election commissioner for Sedgwick County, Tabitha Lehman said, she saw several instances of policymakers acknowledging election policies they support could suppress the vote of some marginalized Kansans to benefit their party. This frequent and increasingly present partisan bickering on issues of election security has sowed significant public distrust of the system, she said.
Lehman, who was appointed to the election post by former Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, said she has heard many conspiracy theories of voter fraud coming from her own party. But she also expressed concerns with criticism from Democrats over laws she feels are necessary for election security.
“I can see the inequities on both sides and became even more impassioned with standing up for the voters instead of a political party,” Lehman said on a recent podcast recorded by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas. “You want to do what’s right for your voters, and you want to do it in the best way you can, and when your hands are tied by laws that are not in the best interest of the voter, that’s very frustrating and very difficult to work through emotionally.”
Lehman — who was fired from her position earlier this year after violating an IT policy while at home fighting cancer — shared her experiences and lessons learned from her time as an election commissioner on the podcast and in a separate interview with Kansas Reflector. She said time working in the position revealed much about the state of election law and perceptions in Kansas, exposing those twisting civic liberties for their benefit.
For the first time in more than 30 years, Kansas will count all of its college students in the towns where they go to school for redrawing state legislative districts next year.
Since 1990, Lawrence, Manhattan, Emporia and other college towns lost out on the potential political clout those students represented in an archaic and costly census readjustment aimed at preserving rural political power.
“I never really expected (the change) to happen,” said Davis Hammet, who leads the Loud Light group focused on mobilizing young voters.
“I remember like, six, seven years ago reading the Kansas Constitution and thinking about how getting rid of this census adjustment would be one of the most important things for the youth vote and for representative democracy in Kansas,” he said.
Yet in 2019, an overwhelming majority of Kansas voters and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers agreed with Hammet — voting for Kansas to stop spending additional money to readjust the U.S. Census count on college campuses and military bases. Kansas passed a constitutional amendment ending the practice.
Now, communities like Manhattan and Lawrence, home to the state’s largest universities, can expect a louder voice in the Legislature. Still, the power of university towns across Kansas will largely depend on how Republicans controlling the process draw the districts.
New state laws tightening voting restrictions come in two basic varieties: those that make it harder to cast a vote, and those making it more difficult to get registered to vote in the first place.
In Kansas, one law effectively shuts down voter registration drives.
Now, it’s a felony offense to impersonate an election official and the law creates a vague standard for breaking it, a standard that depends on impressions. It criminalizes engaging in conduct that might seem like something an election official would do.
Davis Hammet, president of the Kansas civic engagement group Loud Light, says that subjective standard would probably include work his volunteers do, which is approaching people with clipboards and registering them to vote.
“So, if someone accuses you of being an election official or saying they were just confused and thought you were one, and you were arrested, you would be charged with a felony,” Hammet says. “And so, a felony means you lose your right to vote. So, you could lose your right to vote for trying to help people vote.”
About
Contact
Locations
Kansas Secretary of State
Memorial Hall, 1st Floor
120 SW 10th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66612-1594
Phone: 785-296-4564
Web Links
Registering to Vote
General Information
Who can register
To register in Kansas you must:
- be a citizen of the United States
- be a resident of Kansas
- be 18 by the next election
- have completed the terms of your sentence if convicted of a felony; a person serving a sentence for a felony conviction is ineligible to vote
- not claim the right to vote in any other location or under any other name
- not be excluded from voting for mental incompetence by a court of competent jurisdiction
How to register
- Use our Register to Vote form below to fill out the National Voter Registration Form.
- Sign and date your form. This is very important!
- Mail or hand-deliver your completed form to the address we provide.
- Make sure you register before the voter registration deadline.
Election Day registration
N/A
Voting Rights restoration
If you have been convicted of a felony and have questions about whether you can register to vote, visit Restore Your Vote to determine your eligibility.
Registration Status (form)
New Registration (form)
Voting
General Information
Voting as a Student
Learn more from Campus Vote Project about voting for students.
Overseas and Military Voting
You are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependent of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation.
If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.
Voting with Disabilities
Voters have the right to vote in an accessible voting place and request assistance if needed. Each polling place is required to have an electronic voting machine equipped to allow disabled voters, including visually impaired voters, to vote in secret.
For more information, you can utilize the Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD) resource.
Early Voting
You may vote in person at your county elections office starting the Tuesday before Election Day, or up to 20 days before the election, depending on the county. Some counties offer satellite voting sites during the 20-day advance voting period. To find such locations, contact your county election office.
Vote by Mail (Absentee)
Absentee ballot rules
Any registered Kansas voter may apply for an absentee ballot and vote by mail.
How to get Absentee ballot
- Use our Absentee Ballot form below to prepare your application.
- Sign and date the form. This is very important!
- Return your completed application to your Local Election Office as soon as possible. We’ll provide the mailing address for you.
- All Local Election Offices will accept mailed or hand-delivered forms. If it’s close to the deadline, call and see if your Local Election Office will let you fax or email the application.
- Make sure your application is received by the deadline. Your application must actually arrive by this time — simply being postmarked by the deadline is insufficient.
- Please contact your Local Election Office if you have any further questions about the exact process.
What to do next
- Once you receive the ballot, carefully read and follow the instructions.
- Sign and date where indicated.
- Mail your voted ballot back to the address indicated on the return envelope.
- Your voted ballot must arrive by the deadline or it will not be counted.
Absentee ballot application deadline
- In Person:
- By Mail: 7 days before Election Day.
Absentee ballot submission deadline
- Election Day
Absentee Ballot (form)
Elections Alert (Form)
Pollling Information
Polling Place Locator
You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource.
If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your county clerk.
Polling Place Hours
Polling places are open from 7:00am to 7:00pm. All voters who are in line when the polls close are allowed to vote.
Poll Worker Information
Voters must show photo ID when casting a vote. Acceptable forms of ID include:
A driver’s license or nondriver’s ID card issued by Kansas, or by another state or district in of the U.S.
A concealed carry of handgun license issued by Kansas, or a concealed carry of handgun or weapon license issued by another state or district of the U.S.
A U.S. passport
An employee badge or ID document issued by a municipal, county, state, or federal government office or agency
A military ID issued by the U.S.
A student ID card issued by an accredited post-secondary institution of education in the state of Kansas.
A public assistance ID card issued by a municipal, county, state, or federal government office or agency.
An ID card issued by an Indian tribe
Photo ID is also required for early voting and absentee voting.
EXCEPTIONS AVAILABLE: Persons over 65 may use expired documentation as proof of identity. Also, if your religious beliefs prohibit photographic ID you may be exempt, but you must sign a Declaration of Religious Objection before voting.
FREE ID: ID cards for persons over 17 years old are free if the applicant signs an affidavit attesting that the ID is needed for purposes of voting in Kansas and that the applicant does not possess any other form of identification qualifying as acceptable ID for voting. The applicant must also produce evidence that he/she is a registered voter in Kansas. Find that affidavit here. Unique among the states, Kansas provides free birth certificates to persons born in Kansas if needed to acquire a photo ID for voting.
Elections Division
The Elections Division is responsible for the administration of all national and state elections and works with each of the 105 county election officers to execute those elections. All candidates for national office, state office and state judicial positions must file their candidacy with the office. The division maintains the statewide voter registration database and serves as the repository for campaign receipts and expenditure reports of state candidates and financial disclosure statements of state officers and certain state employees.
