Kansas

The legislature put judicial selection itself on the August 4 ballot — direct election of Supreme Court justices, abolishing the nominating commission. Voters rejected it 61–39. A model that pre-provisioned elected-justice contests for November built races that will never exist.

First state in this family with real party registration. But the field's meaning is party-dependent: the Republican primary is closed to registered Republicans and poll-affiliating unaffiliateds; the Democratic primary is open by party rule. Affiliation switches locked at noon June 1.

All 40 Senate seats ride presidential years — 2026 has exactly one, a vacancy in District 24. Sheriff, clerk, treasurer, register, and county attorney ride presidential years too. Cities and schools vote in odd Novembers. What remains in 2026: 125 House seats, the six-office statewide row, commissioners, and township clerks.

In counties over 125,000 — Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, Wyandotte — elections are run by an election commissioner appointed by the Secretary of State, not the elected county clerk, who keeps every other duty. The publisher of record changes with the county's size.

Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS have been one unified government since 1997 — except Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, and Lake Quivira, which stayed independent inside it. Greeley County unified with Tribune in 2009 — except Horace. The Census counts both as municipal, so 105 counties yield 103 county governments.

Each of the 31 judicial districts can adopt or abandon merit selection by petition and referendum, revisitable every eight years. This November's ballot carries 45 district judges standing for retention and 29 running in partisan elections — the same office, two contest types, chosen locally.

Kansas elects a 10-member State Board of Education with real power, on partisan ballots, from districts built of four Senate districts each. Five seats are up this year — and all five incumbents are retiring at once.