'Deep split' Kansas GOP lawmakers’ vote rejects 'iffy' bill pushed by election conspiracy theorists

05 March 2024

Kansas Republicans on Tuesday smacked down legislation "that would have banned remote ballot drops boxes and, starting next year, barred local election officials from using electronic machines to count ballots," ABC News reports.

Per the report, the state's GOP lawmakers rejected the bill in a "deep split" vote dooming "proposals from election conspiracy promoters to upend how the state conducts elections and also sank an effort with broader GOP support to shorten the time voters have to return mail ballots."

ABC notes that right-wing GOP lawmakers "across the U.S. have targeted drop boxes and advocated a return to hand-counting ballots, spreading baseless claims that elections are rife with fraud and amplifying former President Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him."

Per ABC, "Ending the grace period for mail ballots was an iffy proposition by itself because Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly opposes the idea, and GOP leaders didn’t have the two-thirds majority necessary to override her veto of a similar bill last year."

The report notes Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who's a conservative, "criticized the legislation after the Senate rewrote it Monday, saying the changes 'further undermine voter confidence and compromise election integrity.'"

Schwab added, "It’s unfortunate that elected officials lack trust in the democratic system that brought them into office."

Republican Elections Committee's chair Rep. Pat Proctor, according to ABC, "said Monday that there's no appetite in the House for banning or greatly restricting ballot drop boxes."

He emphasized, "Kansans that are not neck-deep in politics — they see absolutely no issue with voting machines and, frankly, neither do I."

ABC News' full report is here.

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