Kansas Republicans have finally ended the three-day grace period for mail ballots. 

In past elections, mail ballots could still be counted if they arrived after election day but were postmarked on or before election day. Now, mail ballots must arrive by 7 p.m. on election night or they won’t be counted. The law takes effect in 2026. 

Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill Monday, but the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode her veto. The override vote was 84-41 in the Kansas House, the bare minimum number of votes needed. Five Republicans in total voted against the measure. 

The three-day grace period was first passed in 2017 with overwhelming Republican support over fears that some rural Kansas votes weren’t being counted because of slow mail delivery. But conspiracy theories about the 2020 election took root in Kansas and lawmakers began examining election laws much more closely. 

This legislation has popped up in multiple legislative sessions in recent years and has become a priority for Republicans. 

Rep. Pat Proctor, a Fort Leavenworth Republican, said voter confidence has dropped in recent years. This is one way to build it back up. 

“Voter confidence that the result of our elections reflect their will, that every vote is counted, lies at the very heart of our form of government and our way of life,” Proctor said in a press release when the bill was sent to Kelly.

Proctor said he’d like to completely eliminate mail ballots, unless someone is disabled or in the military. But he settled for eliminating the grace period because he needed 84 votes to override the governor’s veto. 

Republicans say Kansans want to go to bed on election day knowing who won the race. They argue that seeing results flip because of late-arriving ballots erodes trust in the system. Democrats counter that this is the system at work. 

Notably, the law eliminates the three-day grace period but doesn’t add any additional days for people to get their mail ballots. Kansas mails ballots out 20 days before Election Day, which is one of the shortest time frames in the country. 

Kelly said removing the three-day grace period disenfranchises voters. People who cast legal ballots and made an honest attempt to turn it in on time could not have their votes counted. 

About 2% of ballots were thrown out in the 2024 primary election because they took too long to arrive. Some of those ballots were mailed far in advance and should have made it to election offices on time, but failures in postal delivery prevented that from happening. The mail was so slow that Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab wrote a letter to the U.S. Postal Service demanding answers for the delay. 

Democrats say these mail issues will still happen and now more votes simply won’t be counted. 

“This bill is an attack on rural Kansans who want to participate in the electoral process guaranteed by our Constitution,” Kelly said in her veto message. “I will not sign legislation that deprives Kansans from having their vote counted.”