voting

A federal appeals court seems likely to side with voting rights groups trying to stop Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from making residents prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote using a national form.

Canvassing results were finalized Tuesday at the Sedgwick County Election Office in downtown Wichita. Voter turnout for the Aug. 2 primary election was 17 percent.

Kansas officials are counting votes from this month's primary election, including the votes cast on more than 9,000 provisional ballots across the state. It’s not yet clear how many of those are from 17,000 people affected by a recent court ruling.

Just days before the primary, a judge ruled that people who registered to vote at the DMV, without turning in a citizenship document, would be allowed to vote with a provisional ballot.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach says the voting in yesterday’s primary election went smoothly across Kansas, with no significant problems. But one issue that remains is how many Kansans cast provisional ballots after a judge allowed 17,000 previously suspended voters to take part in the election.

The provisional ballots from those voters will be hand counted in the coming days. Kobach says he does not expect any issues handling those extra votes.

Polls opened at 6 this morning in Sedgwick County for the primary election.

Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman says 7 polling places have moved since the last election. Notifications were sent out in June to about 26,000 people affected by the changes, but she recommends all voters check their polling place.

The last day to change party affiliations was June 1.

About one in four registered voters will cast a ballot in tomorrow’s Kansas primary election, according to Secretary of State Kris Kobach. He said expects about 410,000 thousand people to vote, a slight increase from the last presidential election cycle in 2012.

Kobach says the high number of contested legislative races will play a part in the higher turnout. In previous years, Kobach says, many legislative districts only had a competitive primary on either the Democratic or the Republican side.