TOPEKA — Facing the prospect of standing in line at polling places amid the coronavirus pandemic, requests from Kansans for mail ballots continue to come in at a record clip.
As of June 17, more than 142,000 Kansans had filed applications for advance ballots for the Aug. 4 primary. That far exceeds the 54,000 requested at the same point in the last presidential election year.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said the jump reflects worries about in-person voting, but he’s not willing to heed calls from state Democratic Party officials to switch to all-mail elections.
That would create “massive voter confusion,” said Schwab, a Republican preparing to oversee his first statewide election.
Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — conduct all elections by mail. Other states may do so this year to prevent a surge in coronavirus cases.
Kansas Democrats conducted their May 2 presidential primary entirely by mail. They considered it such a success that State Party Chair Vicki Hiatt said Schwab should use a similar process for this year’s primary and general elections rather than putting “a whole lot of money into making provisions for safety.”
Schwab has the authority to alter elections. But he said he can only do so in emergencies that make it “impossible” for people to vote in person.
The threat posed by the coronavirus, Schwab said, doesn’t rise to that level, especially given the steps he and the state’s 105 county clerks are taking to make polling places safer.
They’re installing plexiglass shields at voter registration tables and stocking every polling place with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. They’re also providing disposable styluses so that people don’t have to actually touch the screens of voting machines.
“We’re doing everything on our end to make it safe for voters,” Schwab said.
The state got $4.6 million in federal pandemic relief to pay for the modifications.
Harvey County Clerk Rick Piepho is worried that the volunteers he counts on to staff the county’s 12 polling places – many of them retirees – might also be reluctant to show up this year.
“Most of them are going to be in those higher-risk age groups,” Piepho said.
Piepho said those he’s talked to as he begins his recruiting push for the primary are relieved “that we’re putting in protections for them.”
Ballot security
President Donald Trump strongly opposes large-scale mail-in voting. He’s threatened to withhold federal funding from states seeking to expand it. Several times in recent months, he has said that such an expansion would invite widespread fraud.
