Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt confirms two voting machines were recalibrated during early voting as residents report unexpected ballot selections at polling locations in Olathe, Overland Park and Lenexa.

By David Miller

Johnson County election officials have recalibrated two touchscreen voting machines during early voting for the Nov. 3 general election, as residents report ballot selections appearing differently than intended.

The confirmation came Wednesday, Oct. 21, during an interview with Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt, following Olathe Today’s initial reporting about voters encountering unexpected selections on ballot review screens.

“I think we recalibrated a total of maybe two,” Schmidt told Olathe Today.

The commissioner said the machines were recalibrated at the Johnson County Election Office in Olathe. She did not specify what prompted the adjustments or whether the machines had displayed incorrect selections.

Meanwhile, additional residents have described experiences at polling locations across Johnson County, including Indian Creek Library in Olathe, the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center in Overland Park and Lenexa City Center Library.

One voter said his selections on judicial retention questions repeatedly appeared incorrectly, even while an election worker assisted him. Another reported that a Democratic candidate appeared instead of the candidate she intended to select.

Schmidt also acknowledged that her office had not received a report about the judicial retention incident before Olathe Today contacted her, despite the voter’s account that an election worker witnessed the problem.

The Election Office is now reminding supervising election judges to report potential equipment problems.

The cause of the reported discrepancies remains undetermined, and there is no verified evidence that incorrectly marked ballots were counted.

VOTER SAYS JUDICIAL RETENTION SELECTIONS KEPT CHANGING

Joe Kasha of Overland Park said he experienced repeated problems while voting at the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center, 8788 Metcalf Ave.

Kasha was voting on four judicial retention questions. He intended to vote to retain two judges and against retaining the other two.

But when he reached the ballot review screen, he said the selections displayed did not match the choices he had made.

He returned to the judicial retention questions and corrected the selections, only to encounter the same problem again.

After multiple attempts, Kasha requested assistance from an election worker.

According to Kasha, the worker instructed him to return to the previous screens and correct his choices. However, he said the problem continued even while the worker was helping him.

“I knew exactly how I wanted to vote on the judges. I went through and made my selections, but when I got to the review screen, it showed something different. I went back and corrected it, and it happened again. Even when the election worker was helping me, we had trouble getting it right,” Kasha said.

Eventually, Kasha said, he was able to get the correct selections to appear on the review screen before casting his ballot.

But he remained concerned about what might happen to voters who do not carefully examine their selections.

“What worries me is how many people might not catch something like that. If you don’t carefully check the review screen, you might end up voting differently than you intended,” Kasha said.

Judicial retention questions are nonpartisan. They ask voters whether individual judges should remain in office and do not involve selecting between Republican and Democratic candidates.

Kasha’s complaint concerns the ballot review screen, not evidence that an incorrect ballot was ultimately cast or counted.

ELECTION COMMISSIONER CONFIRMS TWO MACHINES RECALIBRATED

During Wednesday’s interview, Schmidt acknowledged that election officials had recalibrated two ballot-marking devices since early voting began.

“I think we recalibrated a total of maybe two,” Schmidt said.

She identified the Johnson County Election Office in Olathe as the location where the adjustments occurred.

The commissioner did not specify what prompted the recalibrations, whether voters had experienced incorrect selections on those machines or what testing was conducted afterward.

The recalibrated machines were at the Election Office, not at the Arts & Heritage Center where Kasha reported his experience.

There is no established connection between those recalibrations and the complaints described by Kasha or other voters.

Schmidt said approximately 38,000 Johnson County residents had voted at the county’s 12 early voting locations through Tuesday evening.

She characterized the number of recalibrations as relatively small compared with the number of voters who had already participated.

Still, the acknowledgment confirms that at least two ballot-marking devices required adjustments after early voting began.

ELECTION OFFICE WAS UNAWARE OF KASHA’S COMPLAINT

One of the more significant developments from Wednesday’s interview was Schmidt’s acknowledgment that her office had not been notified about Kasha’s experience.

Despite Kasha’s account that an election worker personally assisted him, Schmidt said she was unfamiliar with the incident when Olathe Today contacted her.

“My supervising judges at the early voting locations are supposed to contact our office,” Schmidt said.

She explained that election workers are trained to notify the Election Office when potential equipment problems arise.

However, Schmidt acknowledged that an election worker might interpret a situation as a voter simply needing assistance rather than recognizing it as a potential equipment issue.

She said the Election Office was reminding supervising judges of their reporting responsibilities.

“We’re reaching out to them today to be sure that if there are concerns like that, that we get notified,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt also agreed to have her office contact Kasha directly to discuss his experience.

Olathe Today provided his contact information to election officials.

As of the interview, the Election Office had not determined what caused the problem Kasha described.

MORE VOTERS DESCRIBE PROBLEMS AT OTHER LOCATIONS

Following Olathe Today’s initial report, additional residents commented about their experiences with voting equipment.

Laura Robinson Marion reported encountering a problem while voting at Indian Creek Library in Olathe.

“Happened to me in Olathe – Indian Creek library. Go back to paper ballots!” Marion wrote in a Facebook comment.

Marion did not provide additional details about which selections were affected, whether the problem occurred on the touchscreen or printed ballot, or whether she notified an election worker.

Her account has not been independently verified, and Olathe Today has not established whether her experience involved the same type of discrepancy Kasha described.

Another commenter, Loretta Childers, said she encountered a similar problem during an election several years ago.

“This happened to me several years ago on one very down ballot race. The selection kept changing,” Childers wrote.

She said she called an election worker over to assist.

“He said it was a dirty screen,” Childers wrote.

Childers also offered an observation about her experience voting in the current election.

“A bit of information, I just voted and you can push the small box beside a name or the name itself (which is easier),” she wrote.

Her earlier experience occurred in a previous election and does not establish that the same issue is affecting equipment currently in use.

Childers also expressed concern about the possibility of voting machines malfunctioning or being compromised.

However, no evidence has been presented establishing that the reported incidents resulted from unauthorized access or deliberate manipulation.

The accounts illustrate how voters can experience or perceive similar problems for different reasons, making it important to document exactly what occurred before drawing conclusions about the equipment.

LENEXA VOTER REPORTS DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE APPEARING INSTEAD OF INTENDED SELECTION

The concerns are not limited to judicial retention questions.

Laura Owen posted an open letter on Facebook after voting Monday, Oct. 19, at Lenexa City Center Library.

Owen wrote that she encountered something she had never experienced in decades of voting.

According to her account, the machine repeatedly displayed a Democratic candidate instead of the candidate she intended to select.

She said she returned to the affected contests, corrected her selections and carefully reviewed her completed ballot before casting it.

Owen said she became more concerned after a friend contacted her about a separate experience at the Johnson County Election Office in Olathe.

The friend reportedly said the machine repeatedly displayed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hamilton when she was attempting to vote for Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall.

That second account has not been independently confirmed.

It also remains unclear whether the reported discrepancies appeared only on the touchscreen review screen or whether any printed ballot reflected an unintended selection.

“These are two voters’ accounts, and the cause remains undetermined. They warrant immediate investigation and a public explanation,” Owen wrote.

During Wednesday’s interview, Schmidt said her office had not received reports of problems from Lenexa City Center Library.

“Lenexa City Center, we’ve not had anything reported from there,” Schmidt said.

She also said her office had not received information confirming reports of Republican selections appearing as Democratic candidates.

The reported partisan candidate discrepancies are separate from Kasha’s experience with judicial retention questions.

None of the accounts establishes that an incorrectly marked ballot was counted.

ANOTHER VOTER PRAISES COUNTY’S HANDLING OF BALLOT ISSUE

Not all residents commenting on the election have expressed concerns about the county’s administration.

Dan Miller described a different experience involving an absentee ballot designation when he attempted to vote at Hilltop Center near 143rd Street and Metcalf Avenue.

Miller said he arrived to vote Tuesday morning but was told by an election worker that he had requested a ballot by mail.

He initially disputed that information, then recalled that he and his wife had voted absentee during the July primary while vacationing in Europe.

According to Miller, the election worker offered him two options: leave and wait for his ballot or complete a provisional paper ballot.

He chose to vote provisionally.

After returning home, Miller said he contacted the Johnson County Election Office and was told the absentee ballot designation had carried over from the primary.

He said an election official assured him that his provisional ballot would be counted.

Miller subsequently checked his email and discovered that the Election Office had sent him a general election ballot Sept. 17, which he had not used because he intended to vote in person.

“Why am I posting this now? Because it’s important that we have trust and faith in our elections and in my view my experience of yesterday demonstrates JoCo runs a pretty tight ship with our elections,” Miller wrote.

His experience did not involve a touchscreen selection problem, but it highlights another aspect of election administration: how officials handle voters whose records indicate they have already been issued an absentee ballot.

Miller also described his practice of carefully reviewing the paper ballot produced by the county’s voting equipment before submitting it for tabulation.

He raised questions about how the scanner records votes and what happens to paper ballots after they are counted.

His account of being assured that his provisional ballot would count has not been independently verified by Olathe Today. Whether a particular provisional ballot is counted depends on the applicable election procedures and eligibility review.

COMMISSIONER SAYS TOUCHSCREEN TECHNOLOGY IS ABOUT 10 YEARS OLD

Schmidt acknowledged that Johnson County’s ballot-marking devices use touchscreen technology that is older than the technology found in many modern smartphones.

The county began using its current equipment in 2018.

“The equipment we use for touchscreen ballot marking device is 10 years old,” Schmidt said.

She explained that touchscreen technology has improved significantly since the equipment was developed.

Schmidt said the Election Office added signs inside the ballot-marking devices this year to help voters make accurate selections.

The signs instruct voters to touch the candidate’s name rather than the selection box.

They also inform voters that styluses are available from election workers.

A stylus allows voters to make more precise contact with the touchscreen.

When asked whether a stylus might have helped Kasha, Schmidt suggested the election worker assisting him could have offered one.

“She probably should have gotten him a stylus,” Schmidt said.

However, Schmidt did not conclude that Kasha’s experience resulted from touchscreen sensitivity, a calibration problem, voter error or any other specific cause.

Without additional information about the machine and the circumstances, she said she could not determine exactly what happened.

COUNTY SAYS MACHINES UNDERWENT PRE-ELECTION TESTING

Schmidt emphasized that Johnson County’s voting equipment underwent logic and accuracy testing before the election.

Such testing is designed to verify that equipment performs as expected when ballots are marked and processed.

Schmidt said the machines being used in the election had been tested at the county’s warehouse before being deployed.

Nevertheless, two machines were subsequently recalibrated during early voting.

The Election Office has not provided Olathe Today with records documenting why those adjustments were necessary.

Those records could help determine whether the recalibrations involved touchscreen responsiveness, selection accuracy or another issue.

It also remains unclear whether the machines underwent additional testing before being returned to service.

Olathe Today has not obtained documentation establishing whether the machines involved in the voter complaints were inspected.

VOTERS CAN REVIEW PRINTED BALLOTS BEFORE THEY ARE COUNTED

Schmidt emphasized that Johnson County’s voting process includes several opportunities for voters to identify and correct mistakes before submitting their ballots.

The county uses ballot-marking devices that allow voters to make selections on a touchscreen.

After completing the ballot, voters are presented with a review screen showing their choices.

If something is incorrect, they can return to the appropriate contest and make changes.

Once voters are satisfied, the machine prints a paper ballot.

The voter must then review that printed ballot before inserting it into a separate scanner.

Schmidt described the process as mark, verify and scan.

The distinction is important because making selections on a touchscreen does not automatically mean those selections have been counted.

The printed ballot provides another opportunity to verify that the recorded choices match the voter’s intentions.

If a voter discovers an error after printing but before scanning, Schmidt said the ballot can be voided.

“It can be voided,” she confirmed.

An election worker can then assist the voter with obtaining a replacement ballot.

Schmidt encouraged voters to carefully examine their printed ballots rather than relying solely on the touchscreen review screen.

VOTERS CAN REQUEST HAND-MARKED PAPER BALLOTS

Voters who are uncomfortable using the touchscreen equipment have another option.

“If they are concerned, they can always ask for a paper ballot,” Schmidt said.

A hand-marked paper ballot allows voters to make their selections without using the touchscreen ballot-marking device.

Schmidt also encouraged voters who encounter touchscreen difficulties to request assistance immediately.

Styluses are available for voters who have trouble making selections accurately with their fingers.

The commissioner said election workers should report potential equipment problems to the Election Office so officials can investigate.

That reporting process is particularly important because the Election Office cannot examine an incident it does not know occurred.

QUESTIONS REMAIN AS EARLY VOTING CONTINUES

Wednesday’s interview established that two ballot-marking devices at the Johnson County Election Office have been recalibrated during early voting.

It also revealed that the Election Office had not received a report about Kasha’s experience at the Arts & Heritage Center before Olathe Today contacted the commissioner.

Additional voters have since publicly described problems at other locations, although the circumstances and causes of those incidents remain unverified.

The reports do not establish that voting machines were deliberately manipulated, that votes were improperly counted or that election results were affected.

But they raise questions about how election officials identify, document and respond to potential equipment problems.

Among the unanswered questions are what prompted the two recalibrations, whether those machines were retested and why Kasha’s experience was not reported to the Election Office despite an election worker’s involvement.

It also remains unclear whether officials will inspect the machines associated with the newly reported complaints.

Schmidt said her office was reinforcing reporting procedures and agreed to follow up with Kasha.

With early voting continuing through noon Monday, Nov. 2, and Election Day scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3, voters still have opportunities to raise concerns before casting their ballots.

Schmidt’s advice is to request assistance when needed, ask for a stylus if the touchscreen is difficult to operate and carefully review the printed ballot before scanning it.

Voters who prefer not to use a touchscreen can request a hand-marked paper ballot.

Olathe Today will continue seeking information about the recalibrated machines, the county’s response to voter complaints and any additional findings from election officials.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated Oct. 21, 2026, following an interview with Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt and additional public comments from voters. The commissioner confirmed that two ballot-marking devices at the Johnson County Election Office had been recalibrated during early voting. The article also clarifies that Joe Kasha’s reported experience involved judicial retention questions, not partisan candidate selections.