Hey Kansas GOP: Want us to trust elections? Start by counting all legitimate ballots | Opinion
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, one thing we all should be able to agree on is that legitimate ballots cast by legitimate Kansas voters ought to be counted to the fullest extent possible.
But there are at least three men who disagree.
Unfortunately, they’re the three most powerful men in the so-called Kansas House of Representatives.
I say “so called” because the three men in question — House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita, Speaker Pro-Tem Blake Carpenter of Derby and House Majority Leader Chris Croft — weren’t representing the people of Kansas when they passed a bill to do away with extra time for the Post Office to deliver your ballot to the election office.
They were representing no one but themselves and a handful of their political cronies, in their ongoing quest to protect and expand the near-absolute control they now enjoy at the Statehouse.
The measure in question, Senate Bill 4, is a disgrace to democracy that would leave voters at the mercy of an increasingly inefficient Postal Service. And that will only get worse if President Donald Trump and his multi-billionaire pal Elon Musk carry through with their threats of slash-and-burn privatization of Post Offices.
Current Kansas law requires that ballots be counted if they are postmarked before or on election day and arrive at the election office by the Friday after the election.
The grace period was built into Kansas voting law in recognition of the simple fact that sometimes mail is slow to get where it needs to be.
Efforts to eliminate the delivery days began to pick up steam after the 2020 election, when former Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell — now a prominent Statehouse lobbyist — was voted out by the people of his district after a scandal over a false video ad attacking former mayor Brandon Whipple.
O’Donnell masterminded the plot with former state Rep. Michael Capps and former Wichita City Council member James Clendenin. When the plot backfired, they attempted to frame then-Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman (now Wichita council member) Dalton Glasscock.
Late in his reelection campaign, O’Donnell announced that he’d step down if he won — one step ahead of the district attorney forcing him out of office for corruption.
O’Donnell appeared to have won on election night, but a groundswell of support in late-arriving ballots boosted Democrat Sarah Lopez to a narrow win. Republican leaders felt that robbed them of O’Donnell’s seat and vowed to never let it happen again.
So they started pretending that there’s something wrong with waiting a few days until all the ballots can be counted.
And here we are.
Senate Bill 4 passed the Senate by a veto-proof 30-10 vote. The House also passed the bill, but four votes short of the 84 needed to override a veto by Gov. Laura Kelly.
That veto came on Monday.
“The three-day grace period for mail ballots was a bipartisan solution approved by the Legislature in 2017 to address delays in processing of mail by the United States Postal Service, particularly in rural areas,” Kelly wrote in her veto message. “This bill is an attack on rural Kansans who want to participate in the electoral process guaranteed by our Constitution. I will not sign legislation that deprives Kansans from having their vote counted.”
Hawkins, Carpenter and Croft immediately fired back, with all the make-believe outrage they could muster.
“We eagerly anticipate overriding the governor’s misguided veto to safeguard our elections and ensure quick, reliable outcomes,” they said in a joint statement. “By setting a firm Election Day deadline, we reaffirm Kansans’ trust in our elections.”
Sorry gentlemen. “Quick and reliable” is not the correct measure of an election — fair and accurate is.
And the only trust in question here is the trust that we placed in you to look out for the best interests of Kansas voters.
Reaffirm that.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 4:26 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect title for Rep. Chris Croft. He is House majority leader.
