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Tomorrow is our most critical reporting deadline of the year, and we are still short of our goal. National Democrats are watching our public finance report closely. If we do not continue to demonstrate financial strength, they will see an opening and focus their resources on our race.
With your help, we put up record-setting fundraising numbers in 2025, which helped us clear the primary field. But the real work begins now. My opponent is backed by a massive, out-of-state political action committee supported by foreign billionaires who are desperate to rewrite our election laws. And the Axis of Ballot Harvesting—the ACLU, Loud Light, and the League of Women Voters—likewise awash in foreign money, has been working overtime to beat me and engineer a Democrat takeover of Kansas elections.
We have very little time left to build the resources we need to win. I need your help today. Every contribution, no matter the size, makes a difference. Click the button below to invest in our campaign.
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ACTIVIST JUDGE BLOCKS THREE-DAY GRACE PERIOD REPEAL |
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An activist judge in Lawrence just issued a temporary injunction to block our common-sense law repealing the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots. This disastrous ruling reinstates a massive vulnerability in our election system after voting is already underway for the August primary. In this edition of the Proctor Election Report, I will discuss this activist court decision, the practical solutions we passed to protect your vote, and why we desperately need the Right to Vote constitutional amendment to hold these rogue judges accountable. |
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“Republican state Rep. Pat Proctor, who is running for secretary of state and is chair of the House elections committee, said the judge’s opinion should be a basis for electing justices to the Kansas Supreme Court.
“'This decision represents the worst kind of legislating from the bench – completely subverting the will of the people as expressed overwhelmingly by their elected representatives in the Legislature,' Proctor said.
“'And this guy came a hair’s breath from being yet another left-wing activist Supreme Court Justice. I hope Kansans have this decision front of mind as they go to the polls to decide the fate of the Right to Vote amendment,' he said.”
Brad Cooper
Sunflower State Journal
July 16, 2026
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On Thursday morning, Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom III handed down a poorly-reasoned order that freezes Senate Bill 4. This is the law I carried and passed to eliminate the three-day grace period for mail ballots. Because of this injunction, election officials are now being forced to revert to the flawed 2017 law. Outrageously, this decision came after mail-in ballots have already been sent out to voters! Attorney General Kris Kobach is making an emergency appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court to overturn this unprecedented ruling. He rightly noted that this decision completely upsets an election process that has already begun. I fully support his efforts to ensure that in Kansas, Election Day is actually Election Day, but I don't hold out much hope that our broken, left-wing Kansas Supreme Court will follow the Kansas Constitution and overturn this decision. As Chairman of the House Elections Committee, I fought relentlessly to pass the repeal of the three-day grace period. We successfully overrode Governor Laura Kelly's veto to get Senate Bill 4 signed into law. We did this because the grace period actively harms Kansas voters. |
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The same day that Presiden Trump issued his Executive Order on Election Integrity, which included a call for all states to make Election Day the last day they accept ballots, I led the Kansas Legislature's successful override of the Governor's veto of our repeal of the so-called "three-day grace period."
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The organizations I call the "Axis of Ballot Harvesting"--the ACLU and LoudLight chief among them--claim that ending the grace period suppresses votes, but they are ignoring the facts. Under the old rules, any ballot arriving after Election Day had to have a postmark to prove it was mailed on time. But the postal service frequently fails to postmark envelopes. In the 2024 primary election alone, as many as a thousand advance ballots arrived during that three-day window without a postmark, disenfranchising lawful voters simply because a postal worker failed to stamp their envelope. The voters did everything right, but their ballots were thrown out due to a bureaucratic error out of their control. And this problem will only be worse this year, as the US Postal Service has announced that in the future, they will not postmark ballots until they arrive at central processing facilities. By ending the grace period and requiring all ballots to be received by 7:00 p.m. on Election Night, we removed the need for a postmark entirely. It is a simple fix, adopted by 32 other states, that ensures every valid, legally cast vote is actually counted. |
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Since I began serving you as the Chairman of the House Elections Committee, I have been focused on restoring confidence in our elections by increasing transparency. And one of my biggest wins has been repealing the so-called "three-day grace period," making Election Day once again Election Day.
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Furthermore, accepting ballots for days after an election, as they do in California, destroys voter confidence. When vote totals keep changing for nearly a week after the polls close, it makes Kansans question the integrity of the entire process. We passed this practical solution to provide absolute transparency and timely results. Unfortunately, Judge Folsom ignored these facts and instead relied on a deeply flawed legal foundation. In his ruling, he cited a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court in Watson v. the Republican National Committee. In that case, which I believe was poorly decided, the highest court in the land upheld a similar mail-in ballot grace period in Mississippi. But even in that decision, the US Supreme Court never mandated a grace period. I warned at the time that the US Supreme Court's refusal to defend Election Day would embolden liberal state judges like Folsom. That is exactly what has happened here. Activist judges are twisting the law to push their political agendas and rewrite our election statutes from the bench. We should not be surprised by Judge Folsom's extreme ruling. He is a radical activist with a history of legislating from the bench. Just two months ago, he issued a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of our state's ban on gender-mutilation surgery and chemical castration of minors. |
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“Kansas Family Voice, an advocate of the [Right to Vote judicial selection] amendment, cast a warning about Folsom, underscoring that he’s been recommended by a nine-person screening panel for a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court...
“'A Douglas County judge appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly blocked the law protecting Kansas children from experimental sex-change operations,' the post said.
“'Now that same judge has applied to be on the Kansas Supreme Court with no check from the people of Kansas. The solution is on your ballot: Vote yes on the constitutional amendment to return direct elections for Supreme Court justices,' the post said.
“'This is how people check judicial activism,' the post said.”
Brad Cooper
Sunflower State Journal
June 17, 2026
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In that case, Folsom overturned the Help Not Harm Act by inventing a new constitutional right out of whole cloth for parents to demand medical treatments for their children, even if they are illegal. By this logic, a parent could demand heroin or marijuana for their child and the state would have no power to stop them.
Folsom sided with the ACLU to strike down protections for Kansas children. This is the exact same judicial overreach we are now seeing applied to our election laws. The Axis of Ballot Harvesting, led by LoudLight and Kansas Appleseed, brought this case as well, fighting to protect their ability to subvert our elections. These groups hide behind a non-profit status to rake in millions in dark money from George Soros, foreign billionaires, and out-of-state special interests and then use it to prosecute lawfare against the people of Kansas. |
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As the Chairman of the House Elections Committee, I am focused on restoring confidence in our elections by combating ballot harvesting. Every time we pass laws to combat ballot harvesting, a group I call the "Axis of Ballot Harvesting"--led by the Soros- and foreign-billionaire-funded ACLU and Loud Light--sues to block them. So lastyear, I carried and passed legislation to ban foreign money in our elections. I know I hit the mark, 'cause they're suing that law, too!
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Their partner in crime is the Elias Law Group. This is the notorious left-wing law firm that perpetrated the Russia-gate hoax on behalf of Hillary Clinton in 2017. They're camped out here in Kansas, suing on behalf of the Axis of Ballot Harvesting to block every common-sense election safeguard we pass. They do not want you to have confidence in our elections. They want to keep our voter rolls and ballot procedures vulnerable so the only ballots that get counted are the ones that their allies harvest. This entire debacle highlights exactly why our current judicial system is fundamentally broken. Unelected activist judges like Carl Folsom are using their benches to subvert the will of the people and unravel our practical solutions. We cannot allow radical judges to dictate how Kansas runs its elections. |
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In a recent election decision, the Kansas Supreme Court came within just a single vote of stripping the state legislature of its constitutional authority to write our state's election laws. If just one more justice had flipped, activist judges would have had the power to strike down every common-sense safeguard we've passed—from signature verification to bans on ballot harvesting. It is time for Kansans to Take Back the Court!
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This is why we desperately need the Right to Vote constitutional amendment. Currently, Kansas is the only state in the country that uses a nominating commission dominated by unelected lawyers to pick our highest judges. It is a system controlled by political insiders operating behind closed doors. The Right to Vote amendment will abolish this unaccountable commission. It will finally give the citizens of Kansas the right to directly elect our Supreme Court justices. This is a common-sense safeguard that ensures our highest court reflects the values of the people of Kansas. Early voting has started. Please check your local election office for the time and location for early voting in your county. If we do not pass this now, I can almost guarantee that you will never get another opportunity in your lifetimes to fix this broken system. This is the most important question on the ballot this election season! |
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Early voting has started. Get out and vote!
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As the Chairman of your House Elections Committee, I have fought relentlessly to restore confidence in our elections by increasing transparency. As your next Secretary of State, until we can take back our courts from the radical Left, I will continue that fight, defending the measures we passed against this left-wing lawfare. |
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I produce this weekly newsletter, the Proctor Election Report, because it's important to me, as the Chairman of the House Committee on Elections and a candidate to serve you as Kansas Secretary of State, to keep you informed on the latest developments in Kansas elections. But I also want to focus on the subjects that are of interest to you. Is there a topic you would like me to discuss in a future edition? Do you have feedback or questions on the topics in this edition? Please REPLY to this email. I respond personally to every reply I receive to this newsletter. I look forward to hearing from you!
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Copyright © 2026 Pat Proctor for Kansas, All rights reserved.
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Paid for by Proctor for Kansas, Amy Cawvey, Treasurer
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