Watch: Republican pitches fundamental elections change at 'secret meeting'

TOPEKA — The chair of the House Elections Committee told Republicans in a private Zoom meeting last year that he would prefer to eliminate advanced voting altogether and vowed to ram through legislation in the 2025 session to eliminate the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day.

The comments by Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican, were part of a weekly Zoom call organized by House Majority Leader Chris Croft with Johnson County Republicans and invite-only guests. Loud Light Civic Action, a voting rights advocacy group, released a video of the February 2024 Zoom meeting after receiving it this week from an anonymous source. During meeting, Proctor identified Loud Light and Kansas Appleseed as “bomb throwers.”

The video surfaced after Proctor’s committee on Thursday advanced Senate Bill 4, which would require mail-in ballots be received at the election office by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Current law allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received by Friday.

Last year, Proctor proposed legislation that would balance the elimination of the three-day grace period by adding three days to the early voting period. But his supposed compromise also would have moved back the voter registration deadline by three days. Loud Light, Kansas Appleseed and other organizations opposed the changes, and the package didn’t have enough support for the Legislature to become law.

As the proposal was being debated last year, Proctor joined Croft’s weekly call to talk about election laws. Proctor told the group of about 30 participants that he had tried to compromise in an attempt to get enough support to override a potential veto from the governor.

“The only way we’re going to get it passed is if we get bipartisan support on it,” Proctor said. “And so I had a deal, and then Loud Light and Appleseed, which are the kind of bomb throwers in the election debate, they blew it up. And I told all of them — and you know, please don’t put this on Facebook or in the news — I told them all, this is your year for a deal. You can either negotiate and we can get a deal, or next year I’m ramming the thing through the way I want it to look.”

“If it was up to me, Election Day would be Election Day,” Proctor added. “There wouldn’t be early voting. Mail-in ballots would only be for military or severely disabled. But I got to bring 84 people with me, so I’m trying to chip away at it.”

This year’s proposal, which was introduced by Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, would end the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots without making any other changes. The Senate passed the bill on a 29-10 vote, with Topeka Republican Sen. Brenda Dietrich joining Democrats in opposition.

A statement from Loud Light said Proctor’s comments from a year ago show he is being disingenuous now with his public explanation for eliminating the three-day grace period. Proctor, who didn’t respond to an email seeking comment for this story, said he wants to avoid ballots being dismissed because of problems with the postmark.

According to testimony the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office provided to Proctor’s committee, 2,110 ballots were received after Election Day last November and counted. There were 603 ballots received after the grace period, and 104 ballots arrived after Election Day with no postmark.

“Proctor’s secret meeting shows how some politicians would rather disenfranchise voters than try to win their vote,” said Davis Hammet, president of Loud Light. “Politicians love to play games, but our ability to vote and have our vote counted, our democracy, cannot be treated like a game. Rep. Proctor’s comments are disturbing.”

Mike Fonkert, deputy director of Kansas Appleseed, said the organization supports policies that both make voting easy and secure elections.

The state and nation have a long history of allowing individuals to vote by mail, Fonkert said.

“It is reasonable to allow extra time for ballots to arrive, especially as Kansans continue to encounter more frequent issues with mail delivery interruption across this state,” Fonkert said. “Casting us as ‘bomb throwers’ is dismissive of the important work that we do to protect the rights of Kansas to participate in elections.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.