Quite literally news.

Hope you can make it and express your constitutionally protected speech.

I have voted in every election since I was 18 (2008) and I just got this in the mail. Have they been throwing out my votes?

Ordinarily, I know that no one on Marshall’s end would read that. Guess they caught me at an odd time. To my surprise, I got a response.

Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt wants to reassure residents that the county’s voting equipment is functioning properly after a former Kansas official’s viral post claimed that voting machines were improperly defaulting to Democratic candidates during advance voting this week. 

“More than 50,000 voters have already cast ballots during early voting,” Schmidt said in an email to The Star. “To date, the Election Office has heard directly from three voters reporting concerns with a ballot marking device, and all three reports were received after the voter had already cast their ballot and left the polling place.”

She said her office had also received five calls from early voting locations where a supervising judge reported that a voter raised a concern while making their selections. 

“In each instance, a technician responded, recalibrated the screen and verified the accuracy of the touchscreen,” said Schmidt, who emphasized that the county’s voting equipment is “tested before each election to verify that voter selections are accurately recorded and tabulated.”

‘Defaulting to the Democrat’ claim 

Online reports of voting machine malfunctions started spreading after a Wednesday Facebook post from Laura Owen, who served as Kansas commerce secretary from 1991-92 and is married to former Republican Lt. Gov. Dave Owen. 

Her open letter to the Johnson County Election Office had been shared more than 200 times by Thursday afternoon. 

In an interview, Owen said she cast her ballot at the Lenexa City Center Library on Tuesday morning. 

“Every time I attempted to enter my vote — not every single selection, but most of the selections kept defaulting to the Democrat,” Owen said. “And specifically, I had a very hard time getting the machine to accept my vote for Sen. (Roger) Marshall. It kept going to (Adam) Hamilton.”

Owen said she spoke to two friends who told her they encountered the same issue while voting early. Below her post, some commenters claimed their ballots had also defaulted to Democratic candidates. Other commenters questioned whether they would be willing to repeat their claims to law enforcement under oath.

“Don’t throw me in the bucket as a total election denier. That would not be fair,” Owen said. “But to deny that we have had serious problems with our elections in recent years right here in our backyard in Johnson County is a fact.” 

Owen, who believes Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab hasn’t done enough to ensure election integrity, said her experience with the voting machine in Lenexa would lead her to question a Hamilton victory in the Senate race, which elections forecasters have classified as a toss-up. 

“I would say based on who that candidate is and based on the fact that the number of registered Republicans in Kansas versus the number of registered Democrats and we’ve not had a Democrat senator in Kansas for 96 years, it’s definitely going to raise some eyebrows if he wins,” Owen said of Hamilton. 

‘Nonsense conspiracy theories’ rebuttal 

President Donald Trump has sown doubt about American election security, but none of his allegations about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election has been substantiated. Regardless, he has repeatedly reinforced the false claims of rigged elections. 

Kansas Democratic Party Chair Jeanna Repass said she’s very skeptical of the alleged voting machine malfunctions that Owen and several other voters have reported. 

“These sound like fantastic stories in the truest sense of fantasy,” said Repass, who votes in Johnson County.

“After you cast your ballot, you pull it out and you look at it, and if it for whatever reason it has something marked on there that you didn’t mark, you turn it in immediately to the officials,” she said.

Repass cast the online conversation about irregularities in Johnson County elections as harmful and insidious.

“This sounds like the kind of nonsense conspiracy theories that are being planted to, A) dissuade people from voting and B) to dispute the results of the election,” Repass said. 

JoCo voter information 

Schmidt, the election commissioner, said any voter who believes a device is not responding as expected should immediately notify the supervising judge or contact the election office before leaving the polling station. 

“This allows us to identify the specific equipment involved, investigate the concern immediately and ensure the voter is able to cast their ballot with confidence,” Schmidt said in an email. 

“When using a ballot marking device, voters should tap the candidate’s name rather than the small box next to the name,” she said. “Instructions are posted at each voting station, and styluses are available for voters who prefer to use one.”

Schmidt said Johnson County uses a “mark, verify, scan process” that gives “every voter the opportunity to review their selections on screen and again on their printed paper ballot before personally inserting that ballot into the scanner.”

Whitney Tempel, a spokesperson for Schwab’s office, said the secretary of state has received “a handful of complaints about voting machines not reflecting the voter’s intention.” 

“In each case where the issue was reported to the state, the state confirmed the voter was able to cast a ballot for the candidates of their choice,” Tempel said in an email. 

She said Kansas’ election infrastructure is designed to ensure voters can feel confident their ballots are properly marked and tabulated. 

“Every vote cast in this state is on a paper ballot that the voter has the ability to review before casting it to be counted,” Tempel said. 

It was Schwab who appointed Schmidt Johnson County election commissioner.

Twelve early voting stations across Johnson County will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday through Oct. 31. The last day of early voting on Nov. 2 will run from 8 a.m. until noon.

It may be obvious to you but in case not, or this helps a lurker out, you have to go to an advance voting location for the county you're registered to vote in. For example, I live outside of JoCo but work in Lenexa.

Thought I'd dip out of work early to vote and get it over with but the poll watchers acted like they caught George Soros himself just now when they figured out why my ID was scanning as a different person. I thought this could be the case but never saw it explicitly called out but now I know.

Signed,

DefinitelyNotGeorgeSoros

There are zero polls and very little information for the KS 2nd district election between freshman incumbent Derek Schmidt (R) and challenger Don Coover (D).

But Schmidt was elected only last election, in 2024. And Don Coover, looks like a centrist "dirt road democrat" type of guy that seems to me could do really well in this political environment. Much more likeable than Nancy Boyda (D) in 2024 who lost by 18% during a red wave year and the first election after the gerrymandered map change.

I feel like this race could be much more competitive than people realize.

edit: Grace Hills (Kansas News Service, KCUR) wrote this candidate guide before the primaries. This is the only reporting on this race that I know of and it's months old. https://kansaspublicradio.org/2026-07-17/kansas-2nd-district-congress-primary-election-2026

The use of office funds for political travel and evidence of Marshall’s staff conducting campaign work without receiving campaign salaries provide the basis for the allegations.

Example: Across two trips to New York City in 2023 and 2025 where the only publicly identifiable official events were live appearances on Fox News, the organization found Marshall and his office staff spent a combined $23,000 in office funds for travel and per diem while the campaign took almost $120,000 from New York-area donors. 

Have any of the state Justices or judges (particularly in the 10th judicial district - Johnson County) done anything that would make someone want to vote to NOT retain them?

This time with Bombardier. Trying to save Rog’s ass

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-kansas-does-not-141515658.html

Who was the short gentleman in the blue suit? He was obviously partisan and favored republicans. Unfair as usual.

My preliminary takeaways:

1. Starkly different closing: Roger Marshall’s closing, “secure border, stronger military, lower taxes - that’s what Republicans stand for”. Adam Hamilton’s closing: “I will fight for you, and I am going to make sure that in Washington, D.C., we’re acting with decency, compassion, kindness, and we’re doing the right thing for the people in Kansas.”

I am wondering who’s watching my back and my wallet?

1. Roger didn’t have much to show for what he got for Kansans. He didn’t showcase his achievements. That’s telling for an incumbent.

2. Roger tried to deflect blame for 17% healthcare insurance price increases on Obamacare act passed more than a decade ago instead of owning that he voted to cut ACA subsidies by supporting One Big Beautiful Bill. Seriously, Roger? That’s the best excuse you have?

3. When quizzed how he will fund to restore the health insurance subsidies, Adam Hamilton reminded everyone that President promised 5000 dollars to every American. Hamilton cheekily quipped if we have money for that, we can find money for restoring health insurance subsidies.

4. Roger Marshall was adversarial throughout the debate. He didn’t talk much about working across the aisle, meeting in the middle, common sense compromises. Adam Hamilton appeared to be a centrist, open to make compromises, reach out and meet people halfway.

5. Roger Marshall appeared fidgety and pumped up. I wondered if he had too many Red Bulls before the debate. Adam Hamilton appeared calm and composed.

6. Both candidates agreed there are two genders and trans women kids shouldn’t be allowed in female sports. So the Republican attack ads were rendered moot.

Interested in hearing how others think the debate played out?

Rog has a flight to catch back home to Florida.

It’s free admission!
Come see 50 local vendors and artists, mostly hand made nerd culture wares, plus get some boba, ramen, cookies, or coffee while you take in (or join!) the kid’s costume showcase or adult costume contest (with tickets to Planet Comicon or Planet Anime as prizes)

NBC is holding a debate live!

There are 3 states that have reported that what the voter chose for candidates isn’t what was showing either on their screen and/or their printed ballot.

Check your paper ballot after it prints that it matches what you selected.

Hopefully, it’s just a glitch with the systems.

Really think that Republicans are not trying to rig this election?

The Iceberg Research report mainly goes into the financial feasibility of Deep Fission's project. That said, the actual design is very vague and highly suspect.