The secretary of state’s office on Tuesday came out against a proposal to ban remote mail ballot drop boxes, saying there’s no evidence of so-called “ballot harvesting” or any indication of fraud.
Deputy Secretary of State Clay Barker testified against a bill that started out as limiting mail ballot boxes to one in each county and ended up as an outright ban on using any remote boxes.
The ban was passed 21-19 in the Senate, six votes short of overriding any veto from the governor. It has not been acted on in the House.
It remains uncertain whether the legislation can get out of the House Elections Committee, which passed less restrictive legislation giving the secretary of state the power to regulate the drop boxes. It passed 109-12 in the House.
“I’ve got to figure out where the committee’s at,” said House Elections Committee Chair Pat Proctor of Leavenworth. “Right now, I don’t have the votes.”
Barker said drop boxes have been used in Kansas since 1978 – albeit not very often – and grew in popularity with COVID-19.
They are now used in 79 of the state’s 105 counties. Forty-five counties use one drop box, 27 have two and seven of the larger counties have four or more.
“So far our office has not received any credible report of a single ballot coming in to a drop box that was not requested and properly filled out by a properly registered voter,” Barker told the House Elections Committee.
He also added there’s been no evidence of anyone violating state law by dropping more than 10 ballots at a drop box.
He added that wording in the bill was unclear, allowing the secretary of state’s office to regulate boxes that would be banned.
“If you’re going to ban them, why order us to regulate them?” he said.
He urged lawmakers to approve a bill that’s already passed the House that gives the secretary of state the authority to regulate the drop boxes to provide guidance for physical security, ballot chain of custody and access for voters with disabilities.
The committee heard from two supporters of the bill. One was Hannah Mingucci, who was part of an unsuccessful lawsuit to force the state to rerun the 2020 presidential election in Kansas and force the attorney general to open a criminal investigation of Secretary of State Scott Schwab for election violations.
Mingucci was part of another unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to preserve election records for an investigation of the election system being conducted Johnson County Sheriff Cal Hayden.
Wearing a blue tank top saying “1776 Forever Free,” Mingucci urged lawmakers to ban the drop boxes as her voice cracked with emotion.
“We can’t validate anything that goes through that ballot box,” she said.
“Please consider getting rid of the ballot boxes and please consider listening to the rest of the state of Kansas,” Mingucci said.
“We really do not want the drop boxes, and we really do want election integrity.”
The original bill limiting drop boxes to one in each county was supported by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach.
Kobach, the former secretary of state, backed limits on the boxes for fear that so-called “ballot havesting” could not be prevented.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab has said the boxes are more trustworthy than the Postal Service and encouraged lawmakers to give his office the power to regulate them.
Davis Hammet, president of the civic group Loud Light, said changes in voting should not be made based on a lack of quality information.
“There needs to be an evidence-based problem that you all are trying to address,” Hammet said.
“We hear lots of speculation, lots of allegations, but we have no evidence.”
Proctor asked Hammet if it was incumbent upon lawmakers to head off any vulnerabilities in the election system.
“I think our proponents that talked today are a representative sample of those folks that have deep concerns about voter integrity, and they see the ballot drop boxes as a significant vulnerability in our system,” Proctor said.
“If we see a vulnerability, why would we not try to address the vulnerability in order to improve voter confidence?” he said.
Hammet said the state should not ignore those concerns but added there is an “education gap” in election topics.
He said more education is needed about topics like provisional ballots so voters would better understand why vote totals change after Election Day.
He said there are “legitimate concerns” that can be resolved when voters are given more accurate information about how the election process works.
He cited an example where someone was confused by changing election results posted by The New York Times, and he had to explain how the newspaper gathered the data.
“There are sincere concerns, but I think restricting access to voting, reducing the likelihood that Kansans ballots will count is not the right path,” he said.
“Improving education, improving transparency is the correct path.”
