A little more than 25% of the state’s roughly 2 million voters have already cast a ballot before Election Day, putting the state on track to set a record turnout this year.
As of Friday, 516,776 ballots had been cast, up about 37.6% from the 375,687 cast at this point in 2016, the last presidential election before the pandemic.
The advance numbers are lower than the 624,724 cast in 2020 when people were more inclined to vote by mail to avoid contracting the COVID-19 virus.
There were 1.22 million ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, and there were 1.37 million cast in 2020.
Advance in-person voting ends at noon Monday.
Overall so far, 264,292 Republicans have voted and 172,163 Democrats have voted. Another 76,770 unaffiliated Kansans have voted.
The most advance in-person votes cast have been in Johnson County, where 151,912 people have already voted at polling locations.
About 48% of those voting in-person in Johnson County so far are Republicans compared to 35% for Democrats.
About 16% of in-person votes in Johnson County were from unaffiliated voters.
Here’s a look at the counties with the largest in-person turnout so far and their party breakdown according to data compiled Wichita State political scientist Brian Amos:
- Sedgwick County, 53,566 (57% Republican), (27% Democrat), (16% unaffiliated)
- Shawnee County, 21,308 (48.2% Republican), (35.3% Democrat), (15.8% unaffiliated)
- Wyandotte County 15,725 (55.8% Democrat), (30% Republican), (13.8% unaffiliated)
- Douglas County, 15,317 (52% Democrat), (29.7% Republican), (17.6% unaffiliated)
- Leavenworth, 12,062, (55.9% Republican), (27.2% Democrat), (16.1% unaffiliated)
- Riley County, 8,742 (46.1% Republican), (36.2% Democrat), (16.7% unaffiliated)
- Reno County, 8,160, (64.1% Republican), (22.6% Democrat), (12.8% unaffiliated)
- Butler County, 7,656 (70% Republican), (16.3% Democrat), (13% unaffiliated)
- Miami County, 7,296 (65% Republican), (18.2% Democrat), (16% unaffiliated)*
- Saline County: 6,457 (63% Republican), (21.3% Democrat), (15% unaffiliated)
- Cowley County, 4,722 (65% Republican), (22.2% Democrat), (12.3% unaffiliated)
The most ballots were sent to voters in Johnson County (53,416), Sedgwick County (34,546), Douglas County (14,282), Shawnee County (8,253), Wyandotte County (7,564) and Leavenworth County (3,954).
The counties with the highest percentage of ballots returned were Jewell (89.8%), Kiowa (87.8%), Rice (87.4%), Comanche (86.4%) as well as Republic and Wichita (84.2% each).
The counties with the highest percentage of returned ballots were significantly smaller than the bigger counties where more ballots were counted.
For instance, in Jewell County, 106 out of 118 ballots sent were returned, or in Kiowa County, 43 out of 49 ballots sent have been returned.
In larger counties such as Johnson, 69.5% of the 53,416 ballots sent have been returned, and in Sedgwick, 66.2% of the 34,546 ballots sent have been returned.
In Douglas County, 68% of 14,282 sent have been returned.
