Biden easily wins Kansas Democratic primary as all-mail voting boosts turnout
Former Vice President Joe Biden easily won the Kansas Democratic primary with roughly three of every four voters choosing him under the party’s ranked choice system.
Biden’s victory in the primary was largely assumed after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Biden’s top rival for the nomination who won Kansas in 2016, dropped out of the race on April 8 and endorsed the former vice president a week later.
But with Sanders’ name still on the ballot— along with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard— the ranked choice primary offered a test of voter enthusiasm for the presumptive nominee.
Biden was the first choice of 70% in the first round, compared to Sanders’ 18.1%. Warren drew 7.8% and Gabbard 1.1 %. A remaining 3 percent of voters were uncommitted as their first choice.
Under the ranked choice system, votes are reassigned to voters’ second, third or fourth choices if their chosen candidate doesn’t meet a 15 percent threshold.
After the ranked choice process was complete, Biden had 76.9% to Sanders’ 23.1%.
It means Biden will take the majority of the state’s 41 pledged delegates. The former vice president won 19 delegates from the state’s four congressional districts. Sanders received 7. Statewide delegates will be assigned in the future.
Kansas Democrats switched this year from a caucus to a party-run primary in an effort to boost turnout.
When the COVID-19 pandemic made in-person voting a safety concern, the party decided on a mail-only primary and sent ballots to every registered Democrat in the state. It resulted in a participation record with 146,873 ballots cast and an overall turnout rate of 34.7 percent.
“Kansas Democrats made history in this election with record participation levels along with demonstrating how a vote-by-mail election can protect voters and our Democracy, even in the most uncertain of times,” Kansas Democratic Chair Vicki Hiatt said in a statement.
“We are confident the enthusiasm and engagement seen during the 2020 Primary will only continue to grow and translate into Democratic victories up and down the ballot in November.”
The more than 300 percent increase over the 2016 caucus turnout has helped fuel the national debate about expansion of mail voting for the November election, when COVID-19 will continue to be a concern.
Congressional Democrats have been pushing legislation to expand mail voting, but President Donald Trump and GOP leaders have resisted, arguing — without any real evidence — that it would expand opportunities for election fraud.
“I think we need to make sure that as many people as possible are able to cast their votes,” Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, said Friday. “The results we’re seeing from the number of people who participated in the mail-in ballot is very, very promising.”
Despite the record turnout, some activists have raised concerns that not every Democratic voter received a ballot in time. The party mailed out more than 400,000 ballots based on the addresses in the Kansas secretary of state’s office’s voter registration file.
Damien Gilbert, the former president of the Kansas Young Democrats, said his ballot was lost in the mail. He filled out a request for a replacement ballot, but he did not receive one to vote before the May 2 deadline.
“They were so overwhelmed that they couldn’t get ballots out to everybody,” said Gilbert, 25, who lives in Wichita. “I am frustrated that I didn’t get to vote. It’s not a knock on mail-in voting. It’s a knock on giving six or seven people at the party office the responsibility of mailing and receiving more than 100,000 ballots.”
Biden performed well statewide, but his strongest performance was in the Kansas City area. He won the 3rd Congressional District with 72.6 percent in the first round and 78.4 percent after votes were reassigned under ranked choice.
Biden visited the state last year to join striking autoworkers at a protest in Kansas City, Kansas. He also held a rally on the Missouri side of the metro in March ahead of the Missouri primary, which he also won.
It’s unlikely that Kansas will be a significant factor in the general election. The state hasn’t gone for a Democrat in the presidential race since 1964. But the Biden campaign released a statement saying it would work with down ballot Democrats to win the support of Kansans in the fall.
“While President Trump continues to botch the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe Biden has built a broad coalition in Kansas and across the country — the exact type of coalition that we know it will take to beat the president this fall,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.
“We’ve been honored to have the support of Congresswoman Sharice Davids and other leaders across the state. Our campaign will continue to work hard to earn the support and the vote of each and every Kansan between now and November.”
The victory in Kansas comes two days after Biden for the first time addressed allegations from Tara Reade, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was working in his Senate office in 1993.
“This never happened, and when she first made the claim, we made it clear that it never happened, and that’s — it’s as simple as that,” Biden said in a Friday interview with MSNBC.
Biden has asked the National Archives and Senate to search records for a complaint from the former staffer.
Reade accused Biden of inappropriate touching last year, but she did not publicly allege a sexual assault until more recently. Several news outlets have interviewed people who said Reade told them privately in the 1990s.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Biden easily wins Kansas Democratic primary as all-mail voting boosts turnout."
