TOPEKA — Secretary of State Scott Schwab held up a stack of lottery regulation documents stained with a ring of coffee.
He was illustrating the office’s outdated filing cabinet system, which is being modernized for the first time since being established more than 60 years ago, Schwab said at a press conference Tuesday.
In place of the previous paper-based system is a public website that launched Tuesday. Schwab said the new digital system improves transparency, efficiency and cost. Users can view proposed regulations, search an in-progress archival catalogue and subscribe to email notices for scheduled public hearings.
He said delivering physical documents has caused mistakes.
“Sometimes it actually gets done. Sometimes it just absolutely gets lost,” Schwab said.
The Secretary of State’s Office signed a three-year contract in 2025 with Esper, an Austin technology company that specializes in public policy software for governments. The office paid $1.4 million for the first year and used a $500,000 grant to help pay for the new system, Thomas Treacy, a spokesperson for the office, said in an email.
Across those three years, the office estimates it will save nearly $3 million, Treacy said.
Josh Ellars, an Esper executive, said at the conference the company has modernized systems in several states,including California, Louisiana and Montana.
“Too many states, too many local governments, too many state agencies are in an archaic state,” he said.
He claimed paper-based systems waste paper and time.
“I cannot tell you how many anecdotes we received in the process of procurement and work that we were doing with the team of paper being lost or dropped or miscommunicated, and we’re really in the position now to get the state in the 21st Century,” Ellars said.
Other Kansas state agencies have updated in recent years. The Department of Labor modernized the unemployment program system for the first time in 50 years in 2024 after years of inefficiency and fraud. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation received millions in federal grant funding to update its crime-tracking system in 2022.
“Every agency needs to be looking at how can we do this better and get rid of that mess,” Schwab said.
Schwab announced plans to eliminate the paper-based system in January 2025, fewer than 24 hours before he announced his run for governor. He is up against seven others for the Republican nomination.
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