How mail delays in Kansas and Missouri could create problems in the 2024 election
As the Nov. 5 election draws closer, tens of thousands of Kansas and Missouri voters are preparing to cast their absentee ballots through the mail.
Whether you’re planning to be out of town on Election Day or have a disability that makes it hard to get to the polls, absentee voting is a convenient way to make sure your voice is heard. But recent U.S. Postal Service delays in both states may throw a wrench in those plans for some voters.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, the state’s highest-ranking election official, sounded off in a letter to U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy about the issue Monday, Sept. 9.
“I am extremely concerned there is a troubling pattern that persists in the U.S. Postal Service’s processing and handling of ballots,” Schwab wrote. “Many are either missing postmarks or failing to reach the county election office on time, even when voters have mailed them timely.”
He added that nearly one-fifth of Kansas voters cast their ballots by mail, but around 1,000 mail-in ballots were not counted in the Aug. 6 primary election due to missing postmarks or late arrival times. Schwab did not specify where in the state ballots had gone uncounted.
“That means that 2 percent of ballots transmitted by mail in Kansas were not counted due to USPS administrative failures,” he wrote.
Mail delays in the Kansas City area have been going on for months — and barring some major improvements in the next seven weeks, the issues are likely to persist up to and through Election Day. Here’s what voters can do to ensure their ballot is received and counted.
What is the deadline to mail in your ballot in Missouri?
According to the Kansas City Election Board, absentee ballots in Missouri must be notarized, signed and received by your local election board by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots that arrive after that time will not be counted.
Voters who are permanently disabled or overseas military members do not have to get their absentee ballots notarized before sending them in. However, they still must ensure their ballots are received by the time polls close on Election Day.
What is the deadline to mail in your ballot in Kansas?
In Kansas, the rules are a little different. In order for your mail-in ballot to be counted, it must be postmarked on or before Election Day, and be received in your county’s election office by the close of business on the third business day following the election. Usually that means 5 p.m. on the Friday following Election Day — this year, that’s Nov. 8.
Mail-in ballots must meet both of these qualifications in order to be counted. For instance, a ballot that arrives the day after Election Day with no postmark can’t be counted. And a ballot postmarked before Election Day that arrives a week later also can’t be counted.
What’s causing mail delays in Missouri and Kansas?
A lack of postal employees and a high number of unscheduled absences — about 10% a day — are causing mail delays in the Kansas City region, according to a July audit of the Kansas City Distribution Center.
For years, U.S. representatives and senators in Kansas and Missouri have called for improved mail service. Mail has been consistently slow in both states in recent years.
Between April and June 2024, 83% of first-class letters arrived on time in Missouri and Kansas. This wasthe fifth worst out of 50 districts in the nation, according to data from the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent agency that oversees the USPS.
Post office supervisors agreed to implement the July audit’s suggestions by the end of October, and that appears to have helped. From July to mid-September 2024, 86% of first class letters arrived on time in Kansas and Missouri, slightly above the national average.
How do I ensure my absentee ballot is counted?
USPS delays have also affected voters on the Missouri side of the state line, says Shawn Kieffer, one of Kansas City’s two election commissioners.
“We’ve had issues in the past few years,” he said. “We do monitor how many ballots we get in a day; we know depending on the size of the election what we should get. And sometimes we go two days without getting any, or getting only 10 (ballots). And then that spurs us to contact the post office and go down there and actually help them look for our ballots.”
Through his team’s persistence and relationships with the USPS, Kieffer says his office generally gets back around 80% of the absentee ballots they send out.
Some of the unreturned ballots are due to voters choosing not to vote or sending their ballots back in too late. He estimates that more than 100 Kansas City ballots in August’s primary election arrived too late to be counted.
“We usually have a lot of people that play it too close,” he said. “You’ve got to mail it in as quick as possible — don’t go too close to the deadline, don’t take that chance.”
The office generally estimates that mail will take about three days to travel between voters’ homes and the election office, but that voters should leave as much time as possible for their ballots to arrive.
“We generally get our mail at like 2 o’clock in the afternoon and that’s the last mail of the day,” he said. “That’s why it’s important to get your absentee ballot in as quick as possible.”
If you’ve waited until too late to mail your vote in, you can also bring the sealed ballot envelope in person to the election office during its open hours, including on Election Day. If you can’t leave the house, a close relative like a parent, child or sibling can bring it in for you.
If you can’t make it to Kansas City’s central election office at 4407 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., you can also go in person to your polling place on Election Day, surrender your absentee ballot and vote in person instead.
Do you have more questions about voting in November’s general election? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published September 14, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
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