Kansas Voter Registration Requirements, Deadlines, and ID

To register to vote in Kansas, you can apply online through the Department of Revenue, mail a completed form to your county election officer, register in person at your county election office, or use a driver’s license transaction at the DMV. Whichever method you choose, your application has to be in at least 21 days before the election you want to vote in. Kansas also requires a photo ID at the polls, so getting on the rolls is only the first step.

Who Can Register in Kansas

Four things have to be true:

You are a United States citizen.
You will be at least 18 by Election Day. Seventeen-year-olds who will turn 18 before the next election can submit an application now, though they cannot vote until they are 18.
You live in Kansas, in the county and voting area where you want to vote.
You are not currently serving any part of a felony sentence, including probation or parole.

These rules come from Article 5 of the Kansas Constitution, which defines a qualified elector and bars anyone convicted of a felony from voting until pardoned or restored to civil rights.¹ The Secretary of State confirms the early-application rule for 17-year-olds.²

You don’t need a traditional home address. If you are experiencing homelessness, you can describe where you sleep or stay — a park, a street intersection — as your residence, and use a shelter, church, someone you know, or General Delivery at your post office as a mailing address for election mail.³

What the Form Asks For

Before you sit down with the application, have these ready:

Your full legal name, and any previous name you registered under.
Your residential address, plus a separate mailing address if your home can’t receive mail.
Your date of birth.
An identification number: your Kansas driver’s license or nondriver ID number. If you have neither, the last four digits of your Social Security number. If you have none of those, you write “none.”
Party affiliation, which is optional. Leave it blank and you’ll be registered as unaffiliated.

The form also requires you to attest, under signature, that you meet every eligibility requirement and are a U.S. citizen. These fields and that attestation are set out in KSA 25-2309.⁴ The application itself is a downloadable PDF on the Secretary of State’s site.⁵

The Four Ways to Register

Online

Kansas runs online registration through the Department of Revenue at kdor.ks.gov/apps/voterreg. The system verifies your identity against DMV records, so you need a valid Kansas driver’s license or nondriver ID card to use it.⁶ Without a Kansas-issued ID, you’ll have to use one of the other methods.

By Mail

Download the form, fill it out in black or blue ink, sign it, and mail it to your county election officer. Check every required field before it goes in the envelope. The envelope has to be postmarked on or before the registration deadline.⁵

In Person

Your county election office will take a completed form in person and can answer eligibility questions on the spot. Forms are also available at various other government offices around the county.

At the DMV

Under Kansas law, every driver’s license application, nondriver ID application, and renewal you submit at a DMV office also functions as a voter registration application unless you decline to sign the voter registration portion. A DMV address change likewise updates your voter registration unless you say otherwise. The DMV has five days to send the registration data to your county election officer.⁷

The Deadline

Registration closes 21 days before every election in Kansas. Mailed applications need a postmark dated on or before that day; online submissions need a system timestamp inside the window. If a mailed application arrives with an illegible or missing postmark, it still counts as long as it reaches the office by nine days before the election.⁸

Miss the deadline and you can’t vote in that election. Your application will still be processed for future ones. Kansas does not offer same-day registration.

Confirming You’re Registered

Your county election officer will mail you a notice once your application has been processed. That notice includes your precinct and polling location.⁵ You can also check your status any time through the Secretary of State’s online voter lookup or by calling your county office. Check well before Election Day, not the morning of.

Photo ID at the Polls

Kansas requires a photo ID every time you vote in person. Accepted forms are:

A driver’s license or nondriver ID card from Kansas or another state
A U.S. passport
A U.S. military ID
A tribal ID from a Native American tribe
An employee ID or badge from a government office
A student ID from an accredited Kansas postsecondary institution
A concealed carry license from Kansas or another state
A public assistance ID card from a government office

Show up without one and you can cast a provisional ballot, but to have it counted you have to bring a valid photo ID to your county election office before the canvass, the official certification of results that happens a few days after the election.⁹

Free ID If You Don’t Have One

If you’re registered but don’t have any of the accepted IDs, Kansas will issue you a free nondriver ID through the DMV. You fill out a Certification Requesting Fee Waiver (Form DE-VID1), available at driver’s license offices, county election offices, and online.⁹

ID for Advance Ballots by Mail

The ID requirement follows you into mail voting. When you apply for an advance ballot by mail, you have to put your Kansas driver’s license or nondriver ID number on the application. If you don’t have either, you include a photocopy of one of the accepted photo IDs.¹⁰

Updating Your Registration

Move within Kansas or change your legal name and you need to update your registration, otherwise you’ll be assigned to the wrong precinct. Submit a new form through any of the four methods. A DMV address change updates your registration automatically unless you opt out.⁷

You can change party affiliation any time by filing a written declaration with your county election officer, with one exception: Kansas freezes affiliation changes during the period between the candidate filing deadline and the certification of primary results. No switches go through during that window.¹¹

If you’re moving out of Kansas, there’s no statewide online cancellation. Contact your county election office and submit a written request with your name, address, date of birth, and the last four digits of your Social Security number. Registering in your new state will generally trigger removal through interstate data-sharing, but a direct request is cleaner.

Registering After a Felony

A Kansas felony conviction suspends your voting rights until you finish the entire sentence, including probation, parole, and any post-release supervision. Once you’ve fully served it, your civil rights are restored, but you don’t come back onto the rolls automatically. You have to submit a new voter registration application.¹²

The form has an affidavit above the signature line where you attest that your voting rights have been restored. Signing it falsely is itself a felony. If you’re not certain your sentence is complete, don’t sign — call the Kansas Department of Corrections or your county election officer first.¹²

Military, Overseas, and Confidential Registrations

Active-duty service members, their families, and U.S. citizens living abroad can register and request an absentee ballot at the same time using the Federal Post Card Application through the Federal Voting Assistance Program at fvap.gov.¹³ Kansas law does not require military and overseas voters to be registered in the county where they vote. There is no hard statutory deadline for the FPCA, but leave enough time for your ballot to travel both ways. Filing an FPCA before the primary also gets you a general election ballot that year without a second request. If your requested ballot doesn’t arrive in time, the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot works as a backup.¹⁴

Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking who are hiding from an abuser can register through the Attorney General’s Safe at Home program. The program gives you a substitute address to use with state and local agencies, including for voter registration and driver’s licenses, and it forwards first-class mail for free. Your actual location stays out of any public record.¹⁵

1
Kansas Secretary of State. Kansas Constitution Article 5 – Suffrage
2
Kansas Secretary of State. Elections – Frequently Asked Questions
3
Vote.gov. Voting While Unhoused
4
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Statutes Chapter 25 Elections 25-2309
5
Kansas Secretary of State. Kansas Voter Registration Form
6
Kansas Department of Revenue. Kansas Online Voter Registration
7
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 25-2352 – Voter Registration Through Division of Motor Vehicles
8
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 25-2311 – Opening and Closing of Registration
9
Kansas Secretary of State. Elections – Photo ID
10
Kansas Secretary of State. Application for Advance Ballot
11
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 25-3304 – Declaration of Party or Voter Affiliation, Change of Affiliation
12
Kansas Secretary of State. Registering to Vote After Completing a Felony Sentence
13
Federal Voting Assistance Program. Federal Voting Assistance Program
14
Kansas Secretary of State. Elections – Military and Overseas Citizens
15
Attorney General of Kansas. Safe at Home