GOP moves to end grace period for mail-in ballots

Republican lawmakers want to end a three-day grace period for Kansas voters to main in their ballots, amid a push for tighter election laws.

By

State News

March 4, 2022 - 3:59 PM

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers moved ahead Thursday with trying to end a three-day grace period for Kansas voters to mail in their ballots, advancing a measure that one voting-rights activist called “madness.”

A GOP-dominated state Senate committee approved a bill that would require all mail-in ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day, limit the use of ballot drop boxes and give people three fewer days before an election to register to vote. The measure goes next to the full Senate.

The push for tighter election laws in the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature is part of a nationwide effort by GOP state legislators. Much of it is tied to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that fraud cost him the 2020 election, but many Republicans for years before that had questioned election security, despite lacking evidence of widespread problems with fraud.

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