Kansas GOP moves to eliminate ballot grace period
(AP) — Kansas’ GOP-controlled Legislature showed Thursday that it’s likely to pass a bill eliminating the three extra days state voters get to return mail-in ballots after an election.
But the vote totals in the Kansas House and Senate suggest the bills’ backers don’t have the clout to overcome Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s possible opposition.
Each chamber approved its own, separate version of the bill but each fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override any possible veto.
GOP lawmakers voted unanimously in 2017 to create the three-day grace period. That came amid concerns a restructuring of the U.S. Postal Service’s mail-sorting operations had slowed the delivery of ballots.
Supporters of eliminating the grace period also suggested that Kansas is out of step with most other states. Thirty-one states require a mail ballot to arrive by Election Day to be counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Kansas, Massachusetts and Virginia have three-day grace periods.
While Kelly hasn’t said publicly that she would veto such a measure, her office said she is worried that the bill would prevent some voters serving in the military from having their ballots counted, disenfranchising them.