Kansas midterm elections 2026: What voters should know about how officials verify election results

As the midterm election is just around the corner, Kansas uses a post-election audit to check whether voting machines accurately recorded votes on paper ballots. Ahead of of November 3rd election, the process involves randomly selected races and precincts, manual ballot counts, and comparisons with machine totals.

How does Kansas conduct post-election audits?

Under Kansas law, counties must conduct post-election audits after elections covered by the state’s audit requirements. The process takes place before county officials certify the results.

In even-numbered election years, the Kansas Secretary of State’s office starts the process by randomly selecting races for review. County election offices then randomly select the precincts to be audited.


Also Read: What happened to the FEC website? Hackers disrupt campaign finance filings before US midterms

Officials select a sample of voting areas. Then they manually count paper ballots from those areas. They compare the results with voting-machine totals to check whether the machines counted votes accurately. At least one precinct in every county must be included in the audit.

A bipartisan team of trained election workers conducts the manual count. Officials compare the hand-counted votes with the totals recorded by voting machines to check whether the numbers match.

The Kansas Secretary of State’s office says the audit is open to the public. County election offices must also provide public notice of the audit’s time and location at least five days in advance.

What happens if a race is close?

Kansas has an additional audit requirement for certain close races during even-numbered election years.

Also Read: Vermont midterm elections 2026: What happens if there is a problem with your mail-in ballot?

Under state law, federal, statewide and state legislative races that fall within 1% of the total votes counted on election night must undergo an additional audit.

For these races, county election officials audit 10% of precincts in the specified race, with at least one precinct included in each county. These precincts are in addition to those selected for the regular post-election audit.

The extra review allows officials to compare more paper ballots with voting-machine totals when a race falls within the state’s close-race threshold.

Officials compare the manual count with unofficial election-night returns. If they identify a discrepancy that they cannot resolve, the county election officer or the Kansas Secretary of State may require audits of additional precincts.

The audit results must be reported to the county election office and the Secretary of State’s office before the county board of canvassers meets to certify the results.