An embarrassing Election Day blunder left voters in a Kansas county without paper ballots Tuesday morning after election officials failed to order enough for a polling location, forcing residents to wait in lengthy lines while workers scrambled to correct the mistake.
The shortage struck the Linwood Community Building in Leavenworth County, where election workers reportedly ran out of certain ballots around 8 a.m., barely an hour after voting began.
The problem was not a malfunctioning machine or a computer glitch. County officials acknowledged that they simply had not ordered enough ballots.
According to The Kansas City Star, the shortage resulted from an administrative oversight involving the number of paper ballots supplied to the polling location at 105 E. Third St.
“We sprung into action,” Stephanie Sloop, deputy director of Leavenworth County Elections, told the newspaper.
“We were able to figure that out really fast.”
Election officials rushed additional ballots from the county courthouse to Linwood while arranging for more to be printed.
🚨 NEW: A Kansas polling place RAN OUT of ballots this morning after the county delivered only 10 PERCENT of the ballots needed
By 8am, voters were being TURNED AWAY. It took over an HOUR AND A HALF for more ballots to be delivered.
How does this even happen?! https://t.co/NI7g5oYsUF
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 3, 2026
“We immediately took a stock that we had here at the courthouse down to them. And in the meantime, they were able to have voters vote on the express machine.”
The mistake reportedly involved ballots for Kansas House District 38. The polling location serves voters in two different legislative districts, requiring separate ballot versions.
According to KCTV, election workers had insufficient District 38 ballots available when residents arrived Tuesday morning.
Additional reporting revealed the extent of the problem.
The Kansas Secretary of State’s Office said the county had supplied approximately 100 ballots when roughly 1,000 were needed, leaving election workers severely short of the required paperwork.
County officials initially arranged for 200 replacement ballots to be delivered while preparing hundreds more to meet demand.
The shortage resulted in delays lasting approximately 90 minutes, with some voters waiting more than an hour to cast their ballots.
Others reportedly left the polling location without voting.
Linwood resident Susan Schlag told the Kansas Reflector that she arrived with her husband and 18-year-old son, only to discover the shortage.
Schlag and her husband were able to wait for an available electronic voting machine, but her son had to leave to attend a class at the University of Kansas.
She estimated that between 10 and 15 people departed without casting ballots while the problem remained unresolved.
“Even if it was unintentional and it was a lack of preparedness, it still feels like voter suppression, if people aren’t able to vote,” Schlag told the outlet.
The incident immediately raised questions about election preparedness in a state holding competitive races for governor and the U.S. Senate.
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is defending his seat against Democrat Adam Hamilton, while Republican Ty Masterson and Democrat Cindy Holscher are competing for the governorship.
With those major contests on the ballot, the shortage created an unexpected obstacle for voters attempting to participate in the midterm elections.
Election officials acknowledged responsibility for the mistake and apologized for the disruption.
“It was an oversight,” Sloop said.
“We apologized for it. We did everything we can.”
She explained that officials began transporting replacement ballots immediately after learning about the shortage.
“ … As soon as finding out, we were in route with ballots while we were getting some more printed.”
The Leavenworth County Election Office also issued a public statement acknowledging that the shortage resulted from an ordering error.
“The shortage was discovered early and efforts to correct the mistake began immediately,” officials said.
County officials urged anyone who left without voting to return to the Linwood Community Building or contact the county clerk’s office for assistance.
Under Kansas election rules, voters must cast their ballots at their assigned precincts, making the shortage particularly disruptive for residents who could not simply travel to another polling location.
Polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. local time, and voters already standing in line at that time are entitled to cast their ballots.
There has been no reported evidence that the shortage was intentional or that election officials deliberately withheld ballots from voters.
Nevertheless, the incident exposed a significant administrative failure during one of the most consequential voting days of the year.
Officials have since moved to replenish the missing ballots, but the morning disruption left some residents questioning why a polling location was not adequately supplied before Election Day began.
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