Kansas voting grace period stands after court ruling
Voting is a fundamental right all Americans, especially military families stationed overseas, should exercise. Kansas-based military members and their families will once again have a three-day grace period for mail-in ballots ahead of the August 4 state primary election. The Kansas Court of Appeals recently reinstated the grace period after ruling against a request to uphold Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), which requires all ballots to be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day. The law was passed in the 2025 legislative session. On July 16, it was temporarily blocked by a judge following a voting rights lawsuit.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab filed the emergency appeal to avoid confusion so close to elections. However, in the Kansas Court of Appeals four-page ruling, it concluded that:
“This very real and irreparable harm—that the votes of well-meaning Kansans, acting in good faith based on a judicial decision, would not be counted—outweighs the administrative burden of counting the mail-in ballots received within three days after Election Day.”
Mail-in ballots must be postmarked on or before August 4 and received by local election offices no later than the end of the three-day grace period on Friday, August 7. Residents are encouraged to contact their County Election Office for more information.
A grace period can be necessary for overseas military personnel and their families to vote in their home state. These voters are covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 and make up nearly three-quarters of the 1.3 million active duty military members. Kansas processed between 5,500 and 6,200 total UOCAVA ballots during the 2024 presidential election.
Interested in learning more about how elections work and how you can get more involved? Learn more here.