The sick, elderly and disabled would feel the biggest impact.
Under one of the proposals it would be a misdemeanor to return more than 10 advance ballots on behalf of others. Advance voters who give their ballots to someone else would be required to sign a form verifying that they were not forced or unduly influenced.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures this provision would fall in line with rules already in place in some other states, including Colorado and Pennsylvania. Other states make it illegal to return anyone’s advance ballot but your own.
In Kansas, however, this would pose a challenge for churches and other organizations that traditionally help the sick, elderly and disabled to turn in their ballots. They would need more volunteers to do the same amount of work.
Lonna Atkeson, director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy at the University of New Mexico, said the amount of work required to verify that no coercion took place could constitute an undue burden on voters.
“It’s just a lot of extra work if you’re giving it to your husband or your grandkid,” she said.
The bill also requires voters to provide a residential address in addition to mailing address.
IS GOV. KELLY RIGHT? IS THIS A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM?
Testifying to a legislative committee in January, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican, said Kansas had run a “free and fair” election in 2020.
“I don’t know how Kansas could do it better,” Schwab said.
In an emailed statement last week, his office reiterated that the state was “voter friendly” but said lawmakers should regularly evaluate the state’s election laws.
“The Kansas election system’s ability to handle the surge in mail ballots in the 2020 election demonstrates the election system’s capabilities and the 2020 elections reaffirmed Kansas is a voter friendly state where voters have multiple options for how to cast their ballot safely and securely,” the statement said.
Kansas has had one recent high-profile incident of voter fraud. In 2019, then-Rep. Steve Watkins, a Republican, voted in the wrong city council district in Topeka municipal elections and claimed a UPS store as his address in voting records.
House Bills 2183 and 2332 nevertheless expand laws and penalties surrounding voting. The proposals create criminal penalties for changing or attempting to change or destroy ballots, manipulating election machines or software, knowingly producing false vote totals, falsely representing an election official and altering the postmark on a ballot.
In an email Friday, the Kansas Secretary of State’s office said many of these actions are already illegal under state or federal law.
Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, said these are not crimes Kansas has struggled with.
“The blunt reality is we do not have a widespread or significant problem with election fraud in this country,” he said.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN OTHER STATES? HOW DOES KANSAS COMPARE?
The short answer is the changes under debate in Kansas are not as far-reaching as in other states.
A new Georgia law cuts back the amount of time for requesting and sending in a mail ballot, places strict new limits on drop boxes, strips the secretary of state of his role as chair of the state election board and gives more control to the legislature. After its passage, leading Georgia employers like Delta and Coca-Cola voiced their opposition and Major League Baseball pulled this year’s All-Star game from Atlanta.
Other states have brought laws requiring voters to provide an excuse to vote absentee, and reducing voting hours.
Atkeson and Miller agreed that Kansas’ bills are “moderate” in comparison.
Kansas is not included in the Brennan Center’s April list of states pursuing voting rights restrictions or expansions.
On the whole, Atkeson said, the bills were not likely to have a severe impact on voter turnout in Kansas. Some measures, like a ban on falsifying a postmark, seemed like common sense penalties, she said, while others, like added requirements for advance voting appeared excessive.
“Some of the laws are better than others,” Atkeson said. “We want some more access but we also want more integrity. Election administration is about balancing three pillars and that’s access, integrity and finality.”
DO THE KANSAS BILLS CHANGE WHO CONTROLS ELECTIONS?
The bills would bar the executive and judicial branches from altering election laws, prevent the secretary of state from changing ballot deadlines and bar them from entering a compact with a court.
Miller said these changes would prevent election officials and governors from instituting many of the adjustments made during the 2020 election to handle the pandemic.
Emergency powers, he said, allowed those officials to change election rules and adjust dates to ensure their residents could safely vote.
“If you are eliminating that flexibility in an emergency then when the next emergency occurs you might see some kind of impact on statewide response,” he said.
Additionally, election officials would be banned from taking any money from groups other than the state to pay for election administration.
Non-profit organizations offered funds to local election offices in 2020 to assist in adjustments to the pandemic. Proponents of the bill said this creates a concern of private interests influencing the election.
