By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Last week, the Kansas Legislature voted to override a veto by Governor Laura Kelly, which ends the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day.
Starting next year, Kansas will instead require all ballots to be returned by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Local election officials downplayed the effect the change will have on local elections, and they agreed educating the voters on the change will be key.
Trego County Clerk and Election Officer Lori Augustine said the highest number of ballots they had returned after Election Day was five.
She also said when there was no grace period, voters also could not return their ballots to any polling location or a drop box. She said that is the big difference this time around.
“They can still drop them off at the drop boxes and the polling places,” Augustine said.
Trego County had more voters who left their ballots in the drop box at the courthouse during the general election than those who mailed them back to the clerk’s office, Augustine said.
August said she foresees large counties facing more issues.
“When they get a big number dropped off there, they have to run those through yet that night,” Augustine said. “Before they could wait till Wednesday and run them through.”
In Rooks County, Clerk and Election Officer Laura Montgomery said she had mixed feelings because she’d “like to see as many votes as possible.”
“Those are some votes that don’t come in because they are late. They come in after the election,” Augustine.
According to Montgomery, they received three votes during the three-day grace period of the fall general election, and two votes were returned after the three-day period had expired.
Ellis County received 24 ballots during the three-day grace period for the general election, Clerk and Election Officer Bobbi Dreiling said.
She said she had no opinion either way and followed the law. However, she said the change would allow her office to complete the ballot count sooner.
“We can now start finishing up the election sooner and getting ready for Canvas sooner,” Dreiling said. “The upside was that I am going to be able to get my work done sooner.”
Dreiling said beginning next year, advanced ballots will include a neon sheet of paper reminding people that the three-day grace period no longer exists, so voters shouldn’t wait to return their ballots.