Student Voting Guide | Kansas

Registration

http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections.html (registration form available online)

https://www.kdor.org/voterregistration/Default.aspx (register online)

The voter registration deadline is 15 days before Election Day, and if you mail your form, it must be postmarked by that date.[1]   In Kansas, you are able to register to vote[2] and vote in a primary election if you will be 18 by the next state-wide general election.[3]  You can also register to vote online if you have a Kansas driver’s license. 

Residency

In Kansas, your voting residence is your place of habitation to which you intend to return after being away.[4]  For many years, Kansas law has recognized that people have the right to change their residence, either temporarily or permanently.[5]  Intent to become a resident is the key factor in establishing residency.[6]

At School. Students who intend to make their school address their principal home should have no trouble establishing voting residency in Kansas. 

At Home. Students who lived in Kansas prior to attending school and who wish to establish or keep their Kansas voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ Kansas address) should have no problem doing so, unless they have already registered to vote in another state.  Like all states, Kansas allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the county or state to attend school.  The only way you will lose this residency is if you “abandon” it by asserting residency in a new state.  While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment of your Kansas residency, some judges or officials might view it as such.

Effect on Driver’s Licenses. If you are driving in Kansas, then registering to vote in Kansas makes you a resident for the purposes of the driver’s license law, meaning you have ninety days from when you become a resident to get a Kansas driver’s license.[7]

Challenges to Residency. If the county election officer refuses to register you on the basis of your residency, you can challenge that denial “in the district court of the district in which the county election officer is located.”[8]  On Election Day, only official poll workers can challenge your eligibility to vote on the basis of your residence.[9]  You will be asked to vote by provisional ballot, which may be counted at the discretion of the county board of canvassers.[10] 

Identification

Only a small number of voters—first-time voters who register by mail and whose identifying numbers (Kansas driver’s license or non-driver ID card number or last four digits of a Social Security number) have not been verified by the state—have to provide ID.[11]  These voters can provide a photocopy of their ID when they register, or at the polls on Election Day, or with an advance (absentee) ballot.[12]  Valid ID includes a Kansas driver’s license or non-driver identification card, a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check or other government document with the voter’s name and address.  Cell phone bills and online printouts of qualifying documents will be accepted.[13]  If a voter who is required to show ID cannot do so, they will have to vote by provisional ballot, which will only counted if the voter brings ID to the county elections officer by the time the county officially tallies the election results (usually within three or five days after an election).[14]

Absentee Voting

http://www.kssos.org/forms/elections/AV1.pdf

Kansas allows all voters to vote advance ballots, either by mail or in person at the election office.[15]  To vote in advance by mail, your application must be received by the last business day the week before Election Day (typically, the Friday before Election Day).[16]  Blank applications are available on the web site of the Secretary of State and at the above link.  Your county election official must receive your mailed-in ballot by the close of polls on Election Day.[17]  Neither your application for a mail in ballot nor your actual ballot has to be notarized or witnessed.  If you are a first-time voter who registered by mail, you may have to provide a photocopy of ID with your absentee ballot.[18]

Early Voting

As a convenience to voters, Kansas has early voting which begins 21 days before an election and ends at noon on the day before Election Day.[19]  At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county.  If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent.  You should contact your local elections office for locations and hours.

Last Updated in April 2010

 

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[1] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-2311.

[2] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-2306.

[3] FairVote, “Voting Age and Registration,” available at http://www.fairvote.org/youth-preregistration-fact-sheet.

[4] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-407 (2009).

[5] Parker v. Corcoran, 128 P.2d 999, 1003 (Kan. 1942).

[6] Parker v. Corcoran, 128 P.2d 999, 1003 (Kan. 1942).

[7] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 8-234a(a)(2) (2009).

[8] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-2322.

[9] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-414(a).

[10] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-409(b) (2009).

[11] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-2908(d).

[12] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-2908(d).

[13] Interview with Jennifer Snyder, Elections Assistant, Office of the Kansas Secretary of State (May 15, 2008).

[14] Kan. Stat. Ann. §§ 25-2908(e), 25-3104, 25-409(b) (2009).

[15] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-1122(a).

[16] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-1122.

[17] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-1132.

[18] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-1122(c).

[19] Kan. Stat. Ann. § 25-1122; see also Kansas Secretary of State, Guide to Voting in Kansas available at http://www.voteks.org/guide/stepsix.html.