KANSAS CITY, KAN. • Kansas Republicans have repeatedly said they want “Election Day” to mean Election Day as they weigh new rules to restrict mail-in ballots and drop boxes.

The phrase is a callback to the 2020 election when ballots counted after election night secured President Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College over former President Donald Trump.

But speaking to Kansas House Republicans on Wednesday, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said he hated the phrase.

“Election Day has never meant Election Day,” said Schwab, a Republican from Olathe who has pushed back on conspiracy theories pushed by other members of his party.

Election officials, Schwab said, are doing a wide range of things on Election Day and will never count all the ballots. Election results themselves aren’t formally certified until weeks after ballots are cast.

But as election denialism still sweeps through Kansas three years after the 2020 election and Trump mounts a run for the White House in 2024, state lawmakers contend changes to election law could restore confidence — even as opponents say it will make voting more difficult and election administration more burdensome.

Republican lawmakers want to impose new limits on advanced and mail-in voting, mandating ballots arrive back at the election office earlier and placing new limits and requirements on drop boxes.

“I’ve been very frustrated over the last two years since the 2020 election that we’re not having a conversation,” said Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican who chairs the House Elections Committee.

“One side is expressing concerns that run a spectrum, I acknowledge, from reasonable to maybe not as reasonable. And the other side refuses to engage in that conversation.”

“We need to find a way to bring these folks back into the fold and improve voter confidence.”

On Tuesday, lawmakers advanced a bill that would require mail-in ballots to be returned to the county election office by 7 p.m. on Election Day. The legislation would eliminate an existing grace period that allows ballots to be counted that arrive up to three business days after the election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

The legislation centers around an idea of ensuring Election Day is Election Day and limiting the number of ballots that are counted in the days after the election.

“Allowing ballots to be received days after an election can delay results. Delay sows doubt,” Madeline Melissa, a fellow at the Opportunity Solutions Project, said in written testimony.

Opportunity Solutions Project, a right-wing Florida-based group that has pushed bills on elections since the 2020 election, was the only organization to testify in favor of the bill.

But election officials say that effort is futile because elections are not certified until weeks after the election and it is not simply mailed ballots that are counted after election night.

Rep. Brandon Woodard, the top Democrat on the Elections Committee, said the better solution to restore voter confidence is assuring voters elections are secure.

“It’s our responsibility to uphold the sanctity of elections,” Woodard said. “The proposals I would want to entertain make it easier to vote. But me saying something should be easier to vote is taken by this faction of people, more often times within the Republican Party, who regardless of what we do or say are going to believe that unless their candidate won the election it was rigged.”

Schwab has insisted elections in Kansas are secure and urged others in his party to do the same. His office testified neutral on the grace period bill, stating it was a policy decision while noting that providing results the night of the election is a courtesy. Clay Barker, the deputy Kansas secretary of state, said the office estimated 1,000 ballots arrived statewide after Election Day in 2022.