TOPEKA — A high-stakes legal and legislative battle over the future of Kansas elections intensified Monday as state officials endorsed a bill that would effectively abolish mail-in voting if a court invalidates the state’s signature verification requirements.
Senate Bill 394, which was heard by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, represents an “all-or-nothing” approach to advance voting. Under the proposed law, the legislature would formally declare that signature verification is so inextricably “intertwined” with the mail-in process that the two cannot be separated.
“Lay Down a Line”
Clay Barker, general counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office, told lawmakers that the bill establishes a clear legislative intent. “It sets legislative intent to unambiguously establish with certainty and beyond dispute the signature verification is not severable because it’s intertwined with everything — the application, the ballot, you can’t even open the envelope until the signature is verified,” Barker said.
Kansas has utilized signature verification for mail ballots since 1995. The current system requires election officials to match the signature on a ballot envelope with the one in the voter’s registration file. While proponents argue this is a vital security measure, Barker noted that out of 300,000 mail ballots returned in the 2022 and 2024 elections, only 224 were rejected due to unresolvable signature concerns.
Legal Challenges and AI Controversy
The bill comes as a 2021 lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters, Loud Light, Kansas Appleseed, and the Lois Curtis Center continues to work its way through the courts. The groups argue that the verification process is inconsistently applied across Kansas’s 105 counties, leading to the disenfranchisement of legitimate voters.
The legal battle recently took a surreal turn when it was revealed that the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, tasked with defending the law, used the artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT to assist with at least one legal brief. Melissa Stiehler, advocacy director of Loud Light, pointed out that a Nov. 14, 2025, filing signed by Wichita attorney Bradley Schlozman included links produced by the AI that were used as supporting materials.
“If the Legislature is displeased with a court ruling because they feel it is unjust, it may be worth looking at why the law was so difficult to defend,” Stiehler said, questioning the quality of the state’s representation.
Voter Suppression
The hearing saw sharp exchanges between civil rights advocates and lawmakers. Logan DeMond, director of policy and research at the ACLU of Kansas, testified that signature verification disproportionately impacts voters with disabilities, transgender individuals, and women who have changed their names.
“Instead of making it easier for eligible citizens to vote, this is erecting a new barrier,” DeMond said, describing the bill as a “proxy” for ending mail-in voting altogether. “It is a recipe for voter suppression.”
Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, pushed back strongly against DeMond’s assertions, calling the bill “common sense legislation.”
“Who is discriminating?” Tyson asked. “I know my county clerks would be completely offended by your comments. They are not discriminating against anyone.”
As the Shawnee County District Court prepares to rule on whether the current verification process meets constitutional standards of due process and equal protection, SB 394 ensures that the stakes of that decision will include the very existence of mail-in voting in Kansas.
