Division of the Budget
Landon State Office Building Phone: (785) 296-2436
900 SW Jackson Street, Room 504 larry.campbell@ks.gov
Topeka, KS 66612 Division of the Budget http://budget.kansas.gov
Larry L. Campbell, Director Laura Kelly, Governor


January 31, 2019


The Honorable Elaine Bowers, Chairperson
Senate Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government
Statehouse, Room 223-E
Topeka, Kansas 66612
Dear Senator Bowers:
SUBJECT: Fiscal Note for SB 43 by Senator Pettey, et al.
In accordance with KSA 75-3715a, the following fiscal note concerning SB 43 is
respectfully submitted to your committee.
Current law allows citizens to register to vote during the 20 days prior to an election. SB
43 would amend that law to allow voter registration on any day that the main offices of the county
government are open including on an election day. County election officers would be required to
allow a person who is not a registered voter and appears at the county election office to apply for
an advance voting ballot to register and vote immediately by a regular, rather than provisional,
ballot. The bill would establish the requirements for a qualified person who appears on either
election day at the polling place in which the person resides or at a satellite advance voting site
during the advance voting period to register and vote a provisional ballot. The bill would also
require that the provisional ballot be counted unless the county board of canvassers determines
that it was improperly cast or that the person has otherwise voted in the election. The bill would
also establish the procedure for a person to immediately register to vote in an election and specifies
how that person could provide proof of citizenship as required by statute and under what
circumstances that person’s registration and provisional ballot could be rejected. The bill would
also make technical corrections to existing statutes.
According to the Office of the Secretary of State, enactment of SB 43 would result in
increased expenditures of approximately $50,000 annually from agency fee funds. Of this amount,
$25,000 would be used to update all training and education materials used by the agency staff, the
general public and county election officials and to conduct special training sessions on the new
law for county election officials. An additional $25,000 would be used to provide public outreach
materials and programs to inform the voting public of the change. The agency indicates that
enactment of the bill would also cause increased costs for the 105 county election offices. The
costs for these offices would be for training of county election staff and election board workers,
The Honorable Elaine Bowers, Chairperson
Page 2—SB 43

hiring additional board workers to process more provisional voters, acquiring electronic poll books
in counties that do not currently have electronic poll books, and increasing supplies such as ballots,
and provisional ballot envelopes. After consulting with the county election offices, the agency
estimates that the costs could range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per
election per county.
The Kansas Association of Counties also states that enactment of SB 43 would cause
additional expense to Kansas counties for training and staff; however, the Association is unable to
estimate what that cost might amount to. Any fiscal effect associated with SB 43 is not reflected
in The FY 2020 Governor’s Budget Report.


Sincerely,

Larry L. Campbell
Division of the Budget


cc: Bryan Caskey, Office of the Secretary of State
Chardae Caine, League of Municipalities
Jay Hall, Association of Counties


Statutes affected:
As introduced: 25-2316c, 25-3602, 25-2311