For the second time this session, the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature has bypassed a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
This time, the legislature’s successful override institutes a new law that eliminates the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to be counted in elections.
SB 4, which will take effect next year (and, therefore, not impact elections this coming November), requires that all advanced ballots be returned to county election officials by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
In elections between 2018 and 2024, voters whose ballots were postmarked by Election Day were still counted if received by county election offices by the Friday after an election.
Republican backers of the bill cast it as a way to engender voters’ trust in the state’s election system and also defended the measure by pointing out problems with mail delivery delays by the U.S. Postal Service.
Critics of the bill, including some Johnson County Democratic lawmakers and voting rights groups, portrayed the move as a chipping away of Kansans’ voting rights that would limit access to the polls, particularly for disabled and rural residents.
The veto overrides passed by a vote of 84-41 in the House and 30-10 in the Senate.
Only one Johnson County lawmaker broke party lines, Rep. Laura Williams, a Republican from Lenexa, who voted against overriding Gov. Kelly’s veto.
Here’s how lawmakers in Johnson County voted:
House:
- Barth — Yes
- Bohi — Yes
- Clayton — No
- Croft — Yes
- Esau — Yes
- Essex — Yes
- Featherston — No
- Hoye — No
- McDonald — No
- Meyer — No
- Neighbor — No
- Osman — No
- Ousley — No
- Poskin —No
- Resman — Yes
- Ruiz — No
- Stiens — Yes
- Stogsdill — No
- Sutton — Yes
- Tarwater — Yes
- Turk — Yes
- Turner — Yes
- VanHouden — Yes
- Vaughn — No
- Williams — No
- Woodard — No
- Xu — No
Senate:
- Corson — No
- Gossage — Yes
- Holscher — No
- Pettey — No
- Rose — Yes
- Shane — Yes
- Sykes — No
- Thomas — Yes
- Thompson — Yes
- Warren — Yes
