TOPEKA (KSNT) – Thousands of ballots cast for the 2026 Kansas general election have yet to be reviewed that could influence the outcome of several tight races.
Multiple races have yet to be called in Kansas as of Nov. 12, including the race for the state’s next governor, as a post-race and close-race audit continue. Kansas Secretary of State (SOS) Scott Schwab confirmed that close-race audits are underway for six races last week due to the election night results being within a 1% margin between candidates.
Election officials also confirm that thousands of provisional ballots are also waiting to be reviewed. Thomas Treacy with the office of the SOS told 27 News that just over 26,200 of these ballots were submitted statewide.
Treacy said these ballots have yet to be included in the general election results on the office of the SOS’s website.
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“A provisional ballot is a special ballot that is used when a voter’s eligibility is in question,” Treacy said. “These ballots have not been added to the results page and will be reviewed when the county conducts its canvass.”
Washburn University Professor of Political Science Bob Beatty said that provisional ballots could play a role in determing some of the races that have yet to be called.
“The closer the race, the greater the chance provisionals will play a role,” Beatty said.
Beatty said that, in 2022, there were around 17,700 provisional ballots. He said many did not end up being included in the final vote totals that year.
“Of those that were counted, a number [of ballots] are not counted because they’re provisional,” Beatty said. “They require a voter to bring in verification like proof of address and if a voter doesn’t do that, they won’t be counted.”
Beatty said provisional ballots don’t tend to go for one particular candidate. However, he said that, in 2022, provisional ballots leaned in favor of the Democratic Party candidates.
“The thing about provisionals is they tend to, they don’t go massively for one party or candidate,” Beatty said. “Therefore, it’s gonna be difficult to overturn a close race statewide. There’s probably not enough ballots to do that.”
Beatty said it is unlikely that the provisional ballots that have yet to be included in this year’s race will sway the outcome of the statewide races. Provisional ballots could potentially change who wins the remaining House of Representatives races in the Kansas Legislature as the margins for these races are smaller compared to the statewide races.
“All that being said, the closest race is Holscher,” Beatty said. “It’s most likely that Masterson is not going to reverse that trend from 2022 with the Democrats doing a little better with the provisionals. He’d need 60% of the provisionals to make the race really close.”
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