Kansas Democratic Party confident in new presidential primary voting system

In the wake of Iowa's caucus confusion, Kansas Democrats are confident their system won't face similar problems.

Kansas Democrats are using a new method for their may 2nd presidential primary.

They're hoping the change streamlines what can sometimes be a confusing process.

Vicki Hiatt, the Kansas Democratic Party chair says they have a simple goal in mind for the primary.

"To be able to have more voters participate ... We formatted it to become kind of more of a primary, people said I don't want to stand around and have my head counted in a gymnasium. They just wanted to come and vote, drop off their vote, and leave."

Democrats wanted to simplify the arduous caucus process they've used since the early 90's.

"In 2016, for some people it was a full day process," Hiatt said.

This year - they switched to a primary, with votes cast on paper ballots.

"We will be receiving information from about 40-49 centers. So that should streamline the effort to get all the tabulation done," Hiatt said.

The physical ballots will be digitized - and kept in storage to eliminate the possibility of an electronic miscount.

Hiatt says this is much simpler than Iowa's system.

"We'll have voting centers in all four voting districts and it's different from the Iowa caucuses. They had caucuses in over 1700 different precincts. So getting that data all put together I think is a challenge."

Another big change is where you can cast a vote.

"Say somebody is traveling for the weekend to Kansas City and they live in Wichita, if they want to vote in a voting center in Kansas City they would be able to do that. Even though they aren't in their exact senate district," Hiatt said.

The final element is who Kansas Democrats will vote for.

The new ballots will include ranked-choices - which can be helpful in multi-candidate races.

"All of the candidates who will be on our ballot will be listed one side and then the voters can choose first choice, second choice, third choice, and rank who they want," Hiatt said.

Hiatt acknowledges this is a series of big changes but she is confident primary voting will go off without a hitch.