How to read thisParty split = the registered party of voters who have already cast ballots, not who they voted for. Comparisons line up 2026 with past elections at the same number of days before Election Day. Early ballots are not a forecast of the result. Methods & sources
What the numbers say
Advance ballots cast, by days before Election Day
Statewide, from the Kansas SOS daily advance-voting reports (one each weekday morning, covering through the prior day). 2026 in bold; dots = actual reports. Early in person = advance in-person votes; Mail returned = mail ballots received by county offices. 2018 = one SOS press-release figure.
Added per report: 2026
Change since the previous weekday report. Monday reports cover the weekend.
Party share, same point in each cycle
Party registration of voters whose advance ballots (mail returned + early in person) were counted by this many days out.
Mail return rate: returned ÷ sent
Share of mail ballots sent that have come back, by days out.
By party and method
Data coverage & gaps
Sources & caveats
- Where the numbers come from: the Kansas SOS issues three voter-level reports each weekday (mail requested/sent, mail returned, early in person). The SOS dashboard shows statewide totals only. The party splits and the 2022/2024 daily history come from IKE Lab at Wichita State University, which tabulates those same SOS reports. Spot checks match: 2026 IKE vs SOS dashboard (942 vs 943 returned, 6,210 vs 6,210 in person), and 2022 IKE vs the SOS Nov 4, 2022 release (91,543 vs 91,544 mail returned; 191,140 in person, exact).
- Dates are report dates. Each report is issued in the morning and covers through the previous day. Counties can fall behind in logging mail returns, so mail counts lag actual receipt.
- 2018: no daily series exists publicly. The only 2018 figure is the SOS's "same period" comparison in its Nov 4, 2022 release (mail sent and returned); its 2018 in-person figure (180,703) isn't clearly same-period, so it's left out.
- 2024 was a presidential year. 2022 (midterm, with an open governor's race and a Senate race) is the closer comparison.
- Kansas registers by party; "Unaffiliated" includes Libertarians in the totals but not in the D/R/U breakdown.
Law changes that affect comparisons
Rule changes between cycles can shift how (not just how many) people vote early. Keep these in mind when comparing to past years.
- 2021 · HB 2183 (veto overridden, effective July 1, 2021): limited one person to delivering 10 other voters' mail ballots, required signature matching on mail ballots, and removed the Secretary of State's power to extend the deadline for receiving them. In effect for 2022 and 2024. Source
- 2025 · SB 4 (veto overridden, effective Jan 1, 2026): mail ballots must now arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day. The 3-day post-election grace period used in 2018, 2022 and 2024 is gone. 2026 is the first general election under this rule, which may push voters from mail to early in-person voting or to return ballots earlier. Source · Session laws (effective date)