TOPEKA — Kansas voters will decide on August 4, 2026, whether to amend the state constitution to elect state Supreme Court justices rather than have the governor appoint them. The ballot measure represents a fundamental shift in how the state selects its highest judicial officers, moving authority from the executive branch to the electorate.

The proposed amendment would abolish the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission and require staggered direct elections of the justices. Under the current system, the nine-member nominating commission recommends candidates to the governor, with five members elected by the bar and four nonattorney members appointed by the governor. The Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission was established in 1958 when Kansas voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution.

The amendment authorizes the Kansas Legislature to develop rules regarding the elections, including whether they would be partisan or nonpartisan. It would also repeal a provision prohibiting Kansas Supreme Court justices from holding office in a political party, making contributions to political campaigns, or taking part in political campaigns. Governor Laura Kelly has served as Governor of Kansas since 2019 and appointed four of the current seven justices due to retirements and deaths.

The Kansas Legislature placed the amendment on the ballot when they approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 1611 (SCR 1611) in March 2025. The Kansas State Senate passed SCR 1611 in a vote of 27-13, with 27 Republicans voting yes and four Republicans and nine Democrats voting no. In March 2025, the Kansas Legislature also overrode Governor Laura Kelly's veto of Senate Bill 4, which eliminated the state's previous three-day grace period for ballots.

Total spending by both sides of the campaign has exceeded $12 million. The vote-no campaign has spent more than $8 million, while the vote-yes campaign has spent $3.7 million. The national and state affiliates of Planned Parenthood contributed $1.6 million toward the vote-no campaign.

The vote-yes campaign’s biggest donor is a Nashville-based nonprofit that supports Republican candidates, groups, and causes, providing $1.7 million. Americans for Prosperity, which was founded in 2004 and is affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch, has spent $935,000 to promote the vote-yes campaign. Kansans for Life has spent at least $87,000 over an 11-day period on mailers and texts for the vote-yes campaign.

Governor Laura Kelly opposes the measure. "To think you can make the judicial branch a part of that dysfunctional system is frightening," Kelly stated. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson supports the amendment and called a district court judge's decision to reinstate a three-day grace period for mail ballots "outrageous." Masterson urged people to vote yes on the ballot question. He described a district court judge who blocked enforcement of a 2025 law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors as "radical." In November remarks to the Marion County Patriots for Liberty, Masterson stated, "If we elect our Supreme Court, they won’t force you to spend money on schools." Attorney General Kris Kobach stated in 2022 that electing justices would "slowly and quietly" put anti-abortion justices on the high court.

If the constitutional amendment passes, supporters hope to elect at least four conservative, anti-abortion justices to the seven-member court by 2033. This effort follows a 2019 ruling where the Kansas Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that Section 1 of the Kansas Bill of Rights affords protection of the right of personal autonomy, which includes the ability to control one's own body and exercise self-determination. In 2022, Kansas voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have nullified the 2019 abortion rights decision by a margin of 59% to 41%. Voters currently weigh in every six years on whether a justice remains on the bench through a yes-or-no ballot question, but they have never removed a sitting justice.

Recent legal disputes have centered on ballot access. On July 16, 2026, a Kansas district judge ordered the temporary reinstatement of a policy allowing advance mail ballots to be accepted if postmarked by election day and received within three days. On July 27, 2026, the Kansas Court of Appeals denied Secretary of State Scott Schwab's request to reinstate the election day deadline ahead of the primary. Other legislative actions include Kansas HB 2412, sponsored by Kenneth Collins, which requires instruction to provide students with an understanding of communist, fascist and socialist regimes and ideologies and that students pass an American civics examination in order to graduate with a high school diploma; it was engrossed on Friday, April 10, 2026.

This vote places Kansas among a minority of states considering a return to judicial elections. Twenty-two states elect their top court’s judges, with eight holding partisan races, while governors in 26 states appoint their top court’s judges. In South Carolina and Virginia, legislators pick the justices.

Kansas elected justices for nearly 100 years before voters amended the state constitution in 1958 to change the selection method. A review of state constitutions shows that the last state to add an amendment like the one Kansas is contemplating was Mississippi in 1914. Since 1914, 18 states’ amendments went the opposite way, moving away from judicial elections. Spending in a single state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin last year topped $100 million, illustrating the potential financial scale of such contests.

Why It Matters

This vote represents a rare reversal of a national trend where states have moved away from judicial elections since 1914. Passing the amendment would shift the selection of justices from a commission-based appointment system to direct partisan or nonpartisan elections, potentially allowing supporters to elect conservative, anti-abortion justices by 2033. The change also removes current prohibitions on justices holding political office or participating in campaigns, fundamentally altering the relationship between the judiciary and political parties in Kansas.