Day 1 of early voting in Kansas is over. Here’s how it compares to previous years
On Day 1 of early voting Wednesday, Kansans returned more than triple the number of mail-in ballots sent in 2016, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Officials reported 2,383 ballots sent back as of Wednesday. That’s three times the 771 after the first day of mail-in voting in 2016 and 423 in 2018.
The Secretary of State’s office explained in a subsequent Tweet that the ballots returned thus far are from military personnel and overseas citizens, who are sent ballots beginning 45 days prior to the election.
The number of ballots mailed out has sharply increased. The state said it was shipping 456,148 advance ballots this year, way beyond the 133,822 in 2016 and 128,220 in 2018.
Democrats so far have had the highest mail-in ballot turnout. Officials reported that among ballots received, 1,261 were from those affiliated as Democrats, followed by Republicans (556), unaffiliated voters (549) and Libertarians (17).
Overall, Democrats have requested 214,290 mail-in ballots in the state, compared to 171,517 for Republicans, 68,274 for unaffiliated voters and 2,065 for Libertarians.
