New Kansas Driver's Licenses Vex Election Poll Book Scanners

Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman with the new electronic poll pad.
Carla Eckels

The Kansas Secretary of State's office says new Kansas driver's licenses could not be scanned on electronic poll books across the state during last week's local elections.

Elections Director Bryan Caskey said Monday that did not keep anyone from voting because poll workers manually type in names if scanners can't read the bar codes. He noted other acceptable voter IDs for elections, such as passports, can't be scanned.

Kansas began issuing new driver's licenses that are Real ID compliant in August.

Caskey says the problem first surfaced during early advanced voting, but there wasn't time to fix the software issue before the election. Electronic poll book vendors are now updating software.

The Transportation Security Administration says it has not had issues with Real ID licenses at Kansas airport security checkpoints.

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