photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met at the Election Office, 711 W 23rd St., on Monday, November 18, 2024 for the general election canvass.

Updated at 3:36 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18

Following the general election, the Douglas County Election Office was unable to count 300 ballots from voters registered in other counties, a number higher than in previous elections.

The Douglas County Election Office held a general election canvass on Monday, when county officials give an overview of the results and discuss voter turnout. County Clerk Jamie Shew said that the notable number of uncounted ballots from people who are registered in another county was dominated by students.

“What we were hearing was that there was something out on the internet that said if you were registered in Kansas, you could cast a ballot for president no matter where you were, which is not the way that the Kansas law is,” Shew said at the canvass.

Kansas law requires that if a person moves to a new county in Kansas before the voter registration deadline, a new voter registration application must be completed. If the move occurs after the registration deadline, voting can still take place at the precinct assigned to the old address, but a new voter registration application will be necessary.

According to the provisional ballot report, there were 14,388 mail-in ballots requested, and 13,346 ballots counted. Six votes couldn’t be counted because, while they were received by the Nov. 8 deadline three days after Election Day, there was no postmark attached to the ballot. In addition, eight ballots were received before Nov. 8, but postmarked after Election Day, so they could not be counted.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Several community members attended the general election canvass at the Douglas County Election Office, 711 W 23rd St., on Monday, November 18, 2024.

However, that’s not nearly as many mail-in ballots that couldn’t be counted in comparison to the primary election in August. As the Journal-World reported, the primary election didn’t count 201 mail-in ballots because they arrived late. The cause of the issue was believed to be the mail delays that have occurred in the Kansas City area since June. Kansas residents have sent several messages with concerns about missing mail, delayed postal delivery and extended periods with no delivery service at all. Such mail delays didn’t seem to be as prevalent during the general election.

A total of 59,059 ballots were counted in the general election, slightly fewer than the 60,150 ballots in 2020, meaning the county did not surpass its previous record. However, other records were set, including the number of advanced voters, which reached 34,337.

“At one point, we ran about 1,200 people through this building in a day,” Shew said. “And we did about 1,000 people in the last four hours (on the deadline for in-person advance voting).”

Shew also mentioned another record that was set – the number of provisional ballots, which totaled 2,427, and ultimately 1,679 were counted. These ballots give voters the opportunity to vote even though there are questions about their eligibility, like a change in address, which was the case for 816 people. While there was an increase in the number of these ballots, Shew said this did not impact any of the races in the election.

Shew thanked county staff and said that this was the first presidential election for most of them, and added that it’s different compared to every other election. The next county election will take place in August 2025.

“At one point, I think we had 35 to 40 people working in this building,” Shew said. “It was pretty remarkable and this space is incredible. Our staff did a fantastic job.”