2012 Election Snapshot—Provisional Ballot Use and Rejections in Kansas

Article December 5, 2013 Read time:

Projects: Election Initiatives

Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week.

2012 Election Snapshot—Provisional Ballot Use and Rejections in Kansas

In Kansas, provisional ballots are issued when there is doubt about a voter's eligibility, including failure to update registration information, such as an address, or the inability to provide acceptable photo identification at the polls. During the last two presidential elections, Kansas has had one of the highest rates of provisional ballots use in the nation and those ballots have been issued and rejected at a fairly consistent rate:

In 2012 Kansas issued 38,865 provisional ballots, 3.5 percent of all ballots cast. Thirty-five percent of these were rejected.
In 2008 the state issued 37,048 provisional ballots, 3.2 percent of all ballots cast. Thirty-one percent of these were rejected.