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County election supervisors say the new restrictions will create significant election reporting delays and a slew of costs for local election offices, and could disenfranchise large numbers of voters.

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Here's a summary of Kansas and regional news from the Associated Press.

Photo by J. SchaferRepublican Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins is seeking her fourth term representing the 2nd District of eastern Kansas. This time around, Jenkins is facing a challenge from Democrat Margie Wakefield, an Attorney from Lawrence. KPR’s Stephen Koranda attended a debate between the two earlier this week and has this report.00000184-7fa7-d6f8-a1cf-7fa7d24b0000(SCRIPT)During the debate at public TV station KTWU in Topeka, both candidates stressed their Kansas connections and promised to rise above the partisan fray in Washington. But the two also criticized one another for their claims of non-partisanship. Here’s Lynn Jenkins. “Unfortunately, my Democrat opponent talks a lot about bipartisanship, but she's never done it. She's only served the Democrat Party,” says Jenkins. Margie Wakefield fired right back, saying Jenkins is overestimating her own bipartisan efforts. “Her voting record and her actions as a leader of the caucus, the Republican House caucus, is not a bipartisan effort,” says Wakefield.The two also touched on immigration. Jenkins references a bill that the House passed to secure the border and deal with minors who have come unaccompanied into the U.S.“Provides compassionate, but really tough solutions to quickly return unaccompanied children to their parents and their homes. As a nation of immigrants, we really need to continue to welcome legal immigrants,” says Jenkins.Wakefield disagrees on sending unaccompanied minors back to countries they fled. She says she doesn’t support so-called “amnesty,” and she agrees with Jenkins that the nation should secure the border.“You can count on me to vote to get that job done. We’re not going to depart millions of people, that would cost billions of dollars. That’s not practical, it makes no common sense. We need to make undocumented workers legal taxpayers.”On taxes, both agree the rules need a rewrite. Wakefield says the U.S. needs to close corporate tax loopholes.“We cannot allow them to continue avoiding taxes that regular citizens pay, but we also need to set a practical rate for our corporations, to allow them to be competitive,” says Wakefield.Jenkins says a proposal she’s worked on simplifies the tax code so it’s less costly to comply with.“It eliminates a lot of the special interest loopholes so crony capitalism goes away in Washington so Washington stops picking the winners and the losers and it levels the playing field for all Americans,” says Jenkins.During the debate, Jenkins tried to connect Wakefield to President Obama, and Wakefield tried to connect Jenkins to Kansas Gov Sam Brownback. The Libertarian candidate in the 2nd District, Chris Clemmons, tied them both to a two-party system that he says isn’t working. “We have to stop buying into the idea that there’s some difference between Republicans and Democrats, because at the end of the day, the people they serve are the big money donors that have donated to their campaigns,” says Clemmons.Patrick Miller, a political science professor at the University of Kansas, says the 2nd District has more Democrats, independent voters and moderate Republicans than some other areas of Kansas, meaning Democrats at least have a shot. He says Margie Wakefield has raised around $750,000, which is significant, but is far less than Lynn Jenkins who has raised over $2 million.“Challengers are typically vastly outspent by the incumbents. But what’s important for them is if they can spend enough to get their message out, and Margie Wakefield is just about there,” says Miller.A lot of attention has been focused on Kansas campaigns for governor and the U.S. Senate, and that raises a question: When moderate Republicans and independents show up to vote in those races, how will they vote on the 2nd District candidates? Miller says that could affect the outcome of the race.“Lynn Jenkins is certainly favored, I think, but given what’s going on at the top of the ticket, I don’t think you can totally rule out an upset there,” says Miller.The two will both continue last-minute campaigning up to the election next week.

(Photo by Stephen Koranda)One of the most closely watched Kansas political races this year is for the U.S. Senate. In next week’s primary election, Republican Kansas Senator Pat Roberts will try to fend off a primary challenge from Leawood radiologist Milton Wolf. KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports on the race.00000184-7fa7-d6f8-a1cf-7fa7cef30000====================(SCRIPT)At a park in Topeka, Milton Wolf departs a decorated bus and meets with a handful of supporters who have gathered to see him.“How are you? You come here, you give me a hug.”The stop is part of a tour of Kansas. He asks the people gathered to knock on doors for him, and he lays out one of his main platforms in this race: that Pat Roberts has been in office too long.“Our county is trouble and we’ve got to change our ways. We can’t keep sending the same people to Washington year after year, decade after decade and hope that we get different results,” says Wolf.Wolf says he wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with his own plan, seal the nation’s borders and close down the IRS.“You know, I believe the IRS is corrupt and we need to dismantle it. And I want to be the one who hangs the going out of business sign on the front door of the IRS. But it’s not enough to be against it, we need have to have positive, conservative solutions like the fair tax to replace it,” says Wolf.Wolf is the tea party candidate in this race and is trying to portray himself as more conservative than Pat Roberts. But Senator Roberts has also been brandishing his conservative credentials. He says he wants to repeal the federal health care law. He touts his work on ag issues and his efforts to combat the president and other top Democrats in Washington.“We have to fight the president and end Harry Reid’s reign in the Senate, and together we will do this in November,” says Roberts.That’s Roberts speaking at a rally for Governor Sam Brownback. Roberts didn’t mention Wolf at the event, but made sure to include himself and the governor when talking about fighting Washington.“You know our work to cut spending, to lower taxes, to cut regulations and to protect our constitutional rights and to protect our state of Kansas now and into the future. We need your help in this election, we need your votes,” says Roberts.Wolf and Roberts have been hammering on each other with ads. Roberts has latched onto social media postings made by Wolf that included patient x-rays and some questionable comments.(audio from ad)“And, Wolf’s the same guy who posted those private x-rays on his Facebook page and made creepy jokes about them.”Wolf points out that the x-rays were anonymous. He says he apologizes to anyone he offended with the posts. The Kansas Board of Healing Arts is looking into the issue, but Wolf says the investigation is politically motivated and prompted by Roberts supporters. Wolf himself fires right back at Roberts over the airwaves about Roberts’ long political career and claims that he doesn’t really live in Kansas.(audio from ad)“After 47 years in Washington, Kansas is a distant memory for Pat Roberts.”Roberts argues that he owns property and pays taxes in Kansas. Washburn University Political Science Professor Bob Beatty says Wolf has a message that can work, painting himself as a political outsider. But Beatty says the x-ray controversy has made it hard for Wolf to spread that message. Beatty says some candidates would have pulled out or slowed down after that controversy.“And Wolf didn’t do that. Wolf is tough, he’s stayed in there, so Roberts has had to slug it out,” says Beatty.Beatty says this race could be affected by moderate Republicans, some of whom are displeased with state politics.“The question is: if you have a moderate Republican who comes out in the primary to vote against Sam Brownback, what does he do in the Wolf/Roberts race?” says Beatty.That question will likely be answered on Tuesday. Also running for the seat are Republicans D.J. Smith and Alvin Zahnter, Libertarian Randall Batson and independent Greg Orman. Two Democratic candidates for the seat will also face off in the primary, Patrick Wiesner and Chad Taylor. I’m SK at the Kansas Statehouse.

Here's a look at area headlines from the Associated Press, as compiled by KPR news staffers.

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