A recent Kansas voter registration file revealed 81 addresses with 20 or more registered voters.

One of those addresses in Wichita has 28 voters registered at a parking lot address!

All 28 voters were labeled “active” in the voter file, which is a bit of a mystery.

“Active” usually means the county election office believes a voter will receive mailings at the address in the voter file. “Inactive” often means voters have addresses where they do not receive mail.

These 28 voters have been registered to vote for 13 to 20 years. The average is 16 years registered.

Only 3 of the 28 voters show any history of voting. So, 25 of these voters have been registered more than a decade and have never voted.

The three casting ballots did so in presidential elections at least two decades ago!

Two cast ballots 20 years ago in the Bush/Kerry contest. One cast a ballot in 1996 in the Clinton/Dole contest according to history in the voter file.

Parking lot history

Sedgwick County property records show “353 N Market St Wichita” is an uncovered parking lot owned by the YMCA. The Robert D. Love Downtown YMCA of Greater Wichita is across the street and a bit north at 402 N Market St.

So were these 28 voters once part of the YMCA?

Google and Wichita Eagle searches suggest another use of 353 N Market in the recent past.

A “low income medical clinics” web site shows the United Methodists Door Drop-In Center was at the 353 N Market St. address starting in 2011, but it had some presence at the address earlier.

A 2007 Wichita Eagle article gave these details about the Drop-In Center:

The Drop-In Center, 353 N. Market, offers the homeless a place to be during the day and access to showers, laundry, mail and case management. … it will still help meet a need by providing for the extended hours, said the Rev. Deann Smith, executive director of United Methodist Open Door.

The center has a capacity of less than 60. It serves a little more than 100 people a day.

Wichita Eagle, Sept. 21, 2007

So, these 28 voters still registered at a parking lot in downtown Wichita were homeless people, possibly seeking healthcare a number of years ago.

An archive of Kansas voter files show 60 voters at the address in 2006, which peaked in 2008 at 108 voters. 

It’s unclear when the Open Door Drop-In Center moved, but voter registration has steadily declined at 353 N. Market since 2008 to the 28 now there.

How are these 28 still registered voters?

The Sedgwick County Election Office in an email reply said “there are specific rules that dictate how we handle the situation if a voter moves.” 

They referenced a 24-page Secretary of State “Voter Registration” document from May 2024 that must be followed for list maintenance.

The National Change of Address check likely fails to track homeless people, so that method likely does not work well to identify these 28 voters as “inactive” to eventually have them purged. It’s a mystery why they were all still marked “active” voters.

Federal laws block the timely removal of people who do not vote from the voter rolls. These federal laws cause bloated voter rolls, which could be a source of election mischief.

How many presidential/congressional elections must be missed by a voter before better approaches are considered for removal of a voter? These 28 voters were found as a large group, but the same problem is present for many smaller groups.

Is not voting in all congressional and presidential elections for two decades enough to consider removing a voter from the voter rolls? Federal law says “no.”

We need new federal laws to address the bloated voter rolls affecting Kansas and the whole country.