Douglas County judge blocks ballot deadline law before primary

A Douglas County judge temporarily blocked Kansas’ new ballot deadline law, allowing advance mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they reach county offices within three days after polls close. For now, election offices across Kansas will keep counting mail ballots received by the end of the work week after Election Day.

The order was entered in Douglas County District Court in Case No. DG-2025-CV-000206, Division 7, and it temporarily stops enforcement of 2025 Senate Bill 4. That law would have required county election offices to reject any advance mail ballot that arrived after 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. The lawsuit behind the injunction was filed in Douglas County District Court by Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and other advocacy organizations challenging lawmakers’ attempt to reject ballots when the mail system fails to deliver them on time.

The practical effect is immediate for voters who rely on the U.S. mail to return ballots, including many in Lawrence and the rest of Douglas County. The issue landed in court after Douglas County primary elections saw about 1,000 ballots tossed or not counted because of mail processing problems, a warning sign for any voter whose ballot is still in transit as Election Day approaches.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab had already urged voters to avoid those delays by putting ballots in the mail no later than Nov. 1. Even with the injunction in place, county election workers still have to separate ballots that qualify under the grace period from those that do not, and the rule could change again if the case moves through the courts or a higher court steps in.

For now, the ruling preserves a three-day window that has long been central to the fight over advance voting in Kansas. It keeps voter intent at the center of the count while the legal challenge to Senate Bill 4 continues in Douglas County.