The Kansas Legislature is focusing on issues of election integrity for the third year straight after unfounded allegations of widespread fraud circulated after the 2020 presidential election.
So far, seven bills that would limit advanced voting, increase verification processes and ban ranked-choice voting have been heard in either the House Committee on Elections or the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs. The breakneck pace on election bills has been common over the past couple years.
“We come back to the Legislature in 2021 and it is off to the races,” said Davis Hammet, president of the voter advocacy group Loud Light. “Where I would have maybe three or four election bills a year, it was like three to five election bills a week, all voter suppression bills all over the place on what they’re impacting, attacking every part of the election system.”
The chipping away at alternative means of voting — like early in-person voting, mail-in ballots and increased barriers — come despite the insistence of Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab that Kansas elections are secure and the lack of evidence found to support claims of mass fraud.