Kansas House overrides governor, eliminates three-day mail-ballot grace period

The Kansas House voted to pass Senate Bill 4 notwithstanding the governor's veto, ending the three-day grace period that allowed mail ballots received shortly after election day to be counted.

Representative Adam Proctor moved the reconsideration and passage of the bill despite the governor's veto, saying the change would ensure ballots are received and processed on election night. "Mail in ballots are sent out 20 days before the election. And so we all need to encourage our voters as soon as they get those mail in ballots, if they choose to vote by mail, vote them and get them back in the mail and send them back or drop them off," Proctor said.

Supporters argued the measure aligns Kansas with other states and helps restore voter confidence by requiring ballots to be in clerks' hands by 7 p.m. on election day. Opponents said removing the three-day grace period will disproportionately affect rural voters, seniors, college students and Kansans who rely on advanced voting options, and they urged sustaining the governor's veto.

"This is voter suppression. Just plain and simple," Representative Kirk Haskins said during debate, saying the grace period was adopted in 2017 as a bipartisan response to postal delays and that mail delivery has not improved sufficiently. Representative Brandon Simmons said the minority party had been given inadequate notice of the veto-override vote and criticized the process and the information circulating about ballot counts.

Representative Proctor cited statements by the secretary of state during earlier committee work about ballots arriving after election day and said other states already end acceptance on election night. Opponents pointed to public records and news reporting that showed far fewer ballots affected during the grace period than some proponents had asserted; Representative Simmons noted a public-records finding of 78 ballots that arrived within the three-day window without a postmark in 2024.

The clerk opened and closed the roll for the motion; members offered explanations of vote on the record. Representative Nikki McDonald read a statement opposing the override, saying the change would disenfranchise rural and disabled voters. Representative Proctor closed urging passage.

On the roll call, the motion to pass Senate Bill 4 notwithstanding the governor's veto carried. The clerk announced 84 votes in favor and 41 against; the bill was declared passed and the clerk recorded the vote.

The House debate included repeated references to the 2017 bipartisan adoption of the grace period, the secretary of state's filings about postmark problems, and concerns about the effect of postal delivery times on voters in different parts of the state. Several members urged voter education and other procedural fixes but disagreed on whether repeal was the right remedy.

With passage of the override, county election offices will follow the new statutory requirement that advanced ballots be returned by 7 p.m. on election day (the text of the enacted law appears in the enrolled bill and the governor's veto message was read into the record earlier). The House record shows members from both parties described the vote as consequential for rural residents, college students and those who depend on mail voting.

The House then proceeded to additional business and conference committee appointments related to other pending bills.