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Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026

Are non-citizens legally permitted to vote in Kansas elections?

Jessica Pearce, KLC Journal
no

The Kansas Constitution and state statutes restrict voting to U.S. citizens at least 18 years old who live in the area they vote. 

Additionally, a 2026 law requires the Kansas Secretary of State to conduct biannual checks of voter-registration records against the federal SAVE database and remove ineligible voters from the rolls. Voter registration forms warn non-citizens who register to vote may face up to 17 months in prison, and voting or attempting to vote while unqualified is a felony in Kansas.

Noncitizen voting is fairly rare in Kansas and in the U.S.: A federal court court found that 39 noncitizens registered to vote in Kansas between 1999 and 2013, representing 0.002% of registered voters at the time. In 2026, Attorney General Kris Kobach filed charges against four non-citizens over a 10-month investigation. Nationwide, 0.04% of voter verification cases involved noncitizens.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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