Kansas Supreme Court deals final blow to GOP bid to throw out late-arriving mail ballots

In a decisive win for voters, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s (R) final emergency effort to revive a strict Election Day receipt deadline for mail-in ballots right before the state’s primary.

The decision leaves a temporary injunction in place for the Aug. 4 primary. Under that order, Kansas election officials must count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within the following three days.

The ruling Thursday is a conclusive defeat for Schwab’s last-minute campaign to enforce Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), a Republican-backed law that attempted to eliminate the grace period and require mail ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day or be thrown out.

Without the injunction, voters could have had their ballots rejected because of postal delays beyond their control.

The state Supreme Court found no reason to step in while the appeal continues in the Court of Appeals. The majority said the lower court ruling was not “plainly erroneous” and noted that it preserves the status quo while the broader legal fight moves forward

“The temporary injunction may not ultimately survive appellate scrutiny, but it is not plainly erroneous,” the court wrote.

The court denied both Schwab’s request to take over the full appeal and his separate petition asking the justices to review the Kansas Court of Appeals’ refusal to pause a lower court ruling.

“This court denies both Secretary Schwab’s emergency motion to transfer this appeal from the Court of Appeals and his emergency petition for review of the Court of Appeals’ ruling on his motion to stay,” the majority wrote. “We do so expressly without comment on the merits of the appeal.”

Two justices dissented, arguing that the court should have intervened. But the majority rejected that push and chose not to upend the voting rules days before the primary.

The result is clear for Kansas voters. The three-day grace period remains in effect for this election, and the state Supreme Court will not revive the stricter deadline before ballots are counted.