Kansas Supreme Court upholds ruling that reinstates 3-day grace period for mail-in ballots

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Update: Less than a week out from the primary election, the Kansas Supreme Court released an order on Thursday that upholds the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots in state elections.

The grace period allows for advance mail ballots to count as long as those ballots arrive at election offices within three days of polls closing.

Specifically, the court denied two motions from Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who’d expressed concerns about a sudden change to a law that’d been in effect through the first six months of 2026 and possible confusion this could cause.

On July 16, a Douglas County court blocked Senate Bill 4, the law to end the mail-in-ballot grace period. That law, passed in the 2025 legislative session, was scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, but there hasn’t been a major statewide election in the state this year ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.

Schwab, also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, sought to appeal the court’s reversal, contending that his office “conducted his campaign throughout 2026 to educate voters about the elimination of the previous three-day window.”

The state’s highest court denied Schwab’s motion to transfer the appeal to the Supreme Court from the Court of Appeals. It also denied his petition to conduct an emergency review of a Court of Appeals decision to stay a lower court ruling.

In its decision to keep the appellate court’s ruling intact, the Kansas Supreme Court said it’s denied both of Schwab’s emergency motion and emergency petition “expressly without comment on the merits of the appeal.”

In its conclusion, the Supreme Court cited prior statutes and stated in part, “The Secretary (Schwab) has failed to credibly convince a majority of this court that this case, in its current posture, should bypass the regular appellate review process established by our Legislature. Adhering to our tiered appellate process has the benefit of creating a natural filtration system that allows for deeper exploration of, and refinement of, complex issues, which results in an orderly development of caselaw.”

You can read the state Supreme Court’s full ruling below:

Ahead of Tuesday’s primary, early voting continues into the weekend with polls at 17 satellite locations in the Wichita area, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

On Monday in Sedgwick County, you’ll only be allowed to vote early at the election office at 3639 N. Comotara Street (off of 37th Street between Rock Road and Webb Road) from 8 a.m. to noon.

Those waiting until Election Day to vote (Tuesday, Aug. 4 for the upcoming primary) must do so at their assigned polling locations. You can find your polling place here: myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView.

On the eve of the deadline to request a mail-in ballot for next Tuesday’s primary election in Kansas, a decision handed down from the Kansas Court of Appeals reinstates the three-day grace period for mail-in ballot returns.

The appeals court denied the Kansas secretary of state’s request to keep legislation in place that overturned the allowance of the three-day grace period. On July 16, a Douglas County court blocked Senate Bill 4, the law to end the mail-in-ballot grace period. That law, passed in the 2025 legislative session, was scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, but there hasn’t been a major statewide election in the state this year ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, sought to appeal the court’s reversal, contending that his office “conducted his campaign throughout 2026 to educate voters about the elimination of the previous three-day window.”

“[Schwab] argues that the district court’s temporary injunction will confuse voters about the correct deadline and asks this court to enter the fray to clarify that issue,” the Kansas Court of Appeals summarized in its order that denied the appeal. “He also notes that the advance-voting ballots that were mailed to voters earlier this month state that those ballots must be received by Election Day (not within a window of three days after Election Day). He argues that the district court’s temporary injunction will confuse voters about the correct deadline and asks this court to enter the fray to clarify that issue.”

The opposition to the secretary of state’s appeal to uphold Senate Bill 4 points to the decision from the Douglas County District Court that the change to eliminate the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots “likely violates the Kansas Constitution protections relating to equal protection of the law, due process and voting,” the court of appeals recalled.

“The plaintiffs also note that an emergency stay of the temporary injunction would have the effect of potentially rejecting advance-voting ballots that would otherwise be counted if the injunction remains in effect,” the appeals court said.

As the requirements for mail-in voting stand a week out from the primary, if you request a mail-in ballot, your ballot must be postmarked on Election Day and received no later than three days after Election Day.