(AP) – Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, the recent past president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, sent a letter in recent days to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy regarding mail-in ballots.
He said nearly 1,000 ballots from his state’s Aug. 6 primary election couldn’t be counted because they arrived too late or without postmarks — and more continue to come in.
“The Pony Express is more efficient at this point,” Schwab posted on the social media platform X in late August.
Schwab and other Kansas election officials also have said some ballots arrive on time but without postmarks, which keeps them from being counted under Kansas law. What’s more, Schwab told DeJoy, local postal clerks have told election officials that they can’t add postmarks later even if it’s clear that the Postal Service handled the ballot ahead of the mail-in deadline.
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Kansas will count ballots postmarked on or before Election Day if they arrive within three days. The Republican-controlled Legislature created that grace period in 2017 over concerns that mail delivery had slowed after the Postal Service shut down seven mail-processing centers in the state. That left much of the state’s mail handled through larger centers in Denver, Amarillo, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Schwab has promoted the use of local ballot drop boxes for voting in advance, breaking with other Republicans who have suggested without evidence that they can be sources of fraud. Schwab has long said the boxes are more secure than the U.S. mail.
“Keep your ballot out of the hands of the federal government!” he advised voters in a post on X after the August primary.
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Publish date : 2024-09-11 11:00:00
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