Kansas has among the shortest windows for voting by mail in the US. It will get shorter next year

TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican legislators in Kansas on Tuesday shrunk what already was among the nation’s shortest windows for voting by mail, arguing that problems with the U.S. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill eliminating an extra three days after Election Day for voters to return mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day. “If we tell them what the rules are, they will adjust their behavior to get their ballots in on time.” Kansas election officials in Kansas must wait until 20 days before the election to send mail ballots to voters, and even with the extra three days after Election Day to return them, only Colorado and Iowa have shorter mail-voting windows, according to National Conference of State Legislatures data. “Eventually they will attempt to make sure you can only vote in person and on Election Day.” During the Senate’s debate Tuesday, conservative Kansas City-area Republican Mike Thompson compared the grace period to giving a football team extra chances to score after the game clock runs out. They pointed to ballots arriving without postmarks during the three extra days — and noted that a postmark won’t be required when all ballots must arrive on Election Day.