Wyandotte County reports ‘extraordinary’ percentage of mail-in ballots cast in primary
Wyandotte County election commissioner Bruce Newby said Monday that 95% of the more than 11,000 advanced ballots that were requested by voters in the Aug. 4 primary were returned.
“That is extraordinary,” Newby said during a meeting of the Wyandotte County Board of Canvassers, which gathered to judge provisional ballots from the primary election.
The Kansas return rate for advance-by-mail ballots was 83.3%, according to deputy assistant secretary of state Katie Koupal.
Newby said typically the county gets a return rate of about 50% to 60% of advanced ballots requested by mail.
“It tells me the people who voted by mail were motivated to do so,” Newby said, adding that he understood many voters wanted to avoid in-person voting due to the pandemic.
There were 23,435 votes cast for the Aug. 4 primary, which included a countywide Democratic primary for the Wyandotte County district attorney that functioned as a general election because no Republican filed for the office. There were also a few competitive Kansas House primary elections. The primary also included contests for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and Kansas 3rd congressional district.
Overall turnout was about 25%, which Newby said was a decent outing for a primary election.
In Johnson County, voter turnout was nearly 35% — a record for a primary election in an even-numbered year, said Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt. Out of the total number of votes, 56% were cast by mail. And around 79% of the more than 106,000 mail-in ballots that were requested by voters were returned.
November’s general election will be far bigger. Newby said he hopes the county can get a large number of mail-in voters for the November election to reduce waiting and crowd sizes at polling locations on Election Day.
In Kansas, anyone for any reason can request an advanced ballot in order to vote by mail.
As the general election approaches, political fights over the U.S. Postal Service take on greater significance for voters who want to cast their ballot by mail. The USPS has long faced financial headwinds, which have become more burdensome during the coronavirus pandemic.
President Donald Trump has said, without evidence, that voting by mail will lead to voter fraud and has said he will oppose congressional financial aid to the USPS. Trump has requested a mail-in ballot for himself in Florida. The Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, is a major Trump donor.
The U.S. Postal Service’s funding issues cause Newby some concern for the general election. He said some primary voters who waited until the deadline to request an advanced ballot got them barely in time for the election. Newby suggested that voters request advanced ballots well ahead of time.
USPS has already warned the Missouri Secretary of State that voters casting their vote by mail should put their ballots in the mail no later than Oct. 27, a full week before Election Day, to ensure the votes are counted. The Washington Post reported last week that Kansas received a similar letter, but Kansas officials said Monday they had no record of such correspondence.
The Star’s Sarah Ritter and Washington correspondent Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 1:21 PM.
