The Board of Directors recently sent the following statement as a press release to local outlets.
The Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters of Topeka-Shawnee County aligns with the recent statement from the League of Women Voters of the US in support of mail-in ballots and voting machines..
Dr. Glenda Overstreet Vaughn, President, stated, “At a time when democracy should be valued and promoted, the need is present to defend democracy due to ongoing initiatives that attempt to diminish citizens’ basic voting rights.” Senate Bill 4 changes the voted mail ballot deadline date, effective March 2026, to have voted mail ballots to the county election office by 7 pm on Election Day. “This significantly reduces the flexibility of receiving voted ballots within a reasonable timeline to accommodate the mail handling process without providing residents’ fair and due process for ineffective mail handling.
“Under our Constitution and system of laws, elections are primarily a state function with little federal involvement,” said Paul Post, Vice President of the Board of Directors. “Also, as a Shawnee County election worker since 2018, I can attest to the security and safety of voting on the available machines in Shawnee County.”
“Our legislators are elected to ensure that our rights are protected, not diminished. We must safeguard the process to move forward and not backward. To give extended time for voted mail in ballots presumedly in an effort to accommodate mail inefficiency and then change the rule of law without addressing mail inefficiency doesn’t seem to be an efficient resolve to the issue at hand, it is simply reverting back to an old problem,” said Dr. Overstreet-Vaughn.
