VIDEO SCRIPT

Hey I’m Davis Hammet with Loud Light. There are scary national headlines about mail voting so I want you to know how mail voting works in Kansas.

History 
Kansas has offered the option to vote by mail for 24 years. 

Request Ballot
Anyone can request a mail ballot which may be called an advance ballot by mail or a no excuse absentee ballot. Unless you have a disability, you must request a ballot each election. You can request a mail ballot online at KSVotes.org. You’ll either need a Kansas Driver’s License number or you’ll leave the ID part blank and be emailed instructions on how to send your county election official an alternative ID such as a driver’s license from another state or a student ID. Kansas licenses that expired during the pandemic are still valid for voting purposes.

Receive
Mail ballots cannot be sent out until 20 days before the election so if you request a mail ballot early you can expect your ballot to arrive roughly 2 weeks before Election Day. 

Complete
You should follow the instructions on the mail ballot. Be sure to fill out your ballot, seal it in the official return envelope it came with, and sign the outside of the envelope. 

Return
If you’re able, I recommend returning your mail ballot by hand. You must return it inside the county you requested it from though. You can’t return it in another county. You can take it to the county election office, drop it in a designated ballot drop box, or take it to any voting location in your county including early voting sites and Election Day poll sites. If you bring it to a poll site on Election Day you can skip any line and take your signed mail ballot to the front. You can allow someone else to return your mail ballot for you, but they must sign the section of the envelope saying they assisted you. If you decide to mail your ballot back make sure to check if postage is needed. Some counties pre-pay for return while others require several stamps. Your ballot must be postmarked by Election Day to count and it can arrive up to 3 days after Election Day, but I recommend mailing it back a week before Election Day or opting to return it by hand.

Count
In Kansas, mail ballots are processed as they are returned. Meaning mail ballots that are returned early are among the first ballots counted. If you forget to sign your mail ballot envelope or if your signature doesn’t appear to match then the county must attempt to contact you and give you the opportunity to cure the issue and have your vote counted. 

Track
You can also track your mail ballot and confirm the election office received it. In most counties this data is manually entered though so it can take a few days to show up correctly.

Provisional 
If you request a mail ballot, but decide instead to go vote in-person you will have to vote a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are not bad, in this case it just gives the county time to confirm you didn’t also return your mail ballot, but provisional ballots do take longer to cast and are counted last so if you requested a mail ballot you should stay committed to that choice.

Confident
While many states are scrambling to handle mail voting and lawsuits are flying, you aren’t seeing that in Kansas because our state has made major improvements over the last few years. As long as you request your mail ballot early and return it early your vote will be safe. I can’t speak for other states, but in Kansas I’m confident about voting by mail and it’s how I’m voting in 2020. And if you want to vote in-person instead at an early voting site or at a poll site on Election Day that’s fine too. 

Until next time, thank you so much Kansas!

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