Kris Kobach overreaching again
Another legislative session coming up, another attempted overreach by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
The conservative Republican has said he will again ask the Legislature to give his office the power to search out and prosecute suspected cases of voter fraud. Let’s hope lawmakers turn him down, as they did the last time he asked.
Prosecuting voter fraud is currently the job of county prosecutors. Kobach says those offices are overworked, and voter fraud isn’t a high priority with them.
That may be because there is so little evidence that it actually takes place. In Kansas, as elsewhere, documented cases of voter fraud are few and far between.
Kobach has reported no suspected cases of fraud from the November election. However, 838 voters had to cast provisional ballots because they couldn’t produce the identification required by Kansas’ new voter ID law.
As a lawyer who helps states and cities crack down on illegal immigration, Kobach advocates enabling or even requiring police to check on the status of people who might be in the United States illegally. That sort of seek-and-prosecute approach, applied to voting, could have a chilling effect.
Legislators should be very careful about further empowering a politician who is willing to tread close to a constitutional line in order to make a name for himself.
Also, it’s not as though Kobach needs more to do. Some Kansans already are complaining that his immigration work distracts him from his secretary of state duties.
Multiple problems with counting and reporting vote totals were experienced in Sedgwick County on election night. If Kobach is looking for a new project, he should focus on making elections around the state more accessible and function more smoothly.
Florentino Camacho Jr
5 months, 3 weeks agoKRIS KOBACH WAS ONE OF THE REASON THE RWPUBLICAN PARTY LOST THE WHITE HOUSE BY ACTING AS A IMMIGRATION ADVISER.
IF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DO NOT STOP HIM AND HIS ATTACKS ON HUMAN-BEINGS , WOMEN AND CHILDERN THE REPUBLICSN PARTY WILL LOSE IN 2016 AND 2020.THE LAST ELECTION ALL THE MONEY FROM RICH CEO’S SUPER PACS BY KARL ROVE,THE FAR RIGHT,THE TEA PARTY,HATE GROUPS,THE 47% VIDEO,THE KOCH BROTHERS MONEY COULD NOT DEFEATED THE VOTERS OF AMERICA!COULD NOT DEFEAT THE VOTERS OF AMERICA!AMEN!
FLORENTINO CAMACHO JR. KANSAS CITY: PROUD MEMBER OF THE ARRP.
George Hunsucker
Northland
5 months, 3 weeks agoOK Florentino, I’ll bite….
What is the ARRP?
Mark Hastert
5 months, 3 weeks agoSince when did the Sec of State assume the duties of Attorney General?
Why not just appoint himself Grand Inquisitor?
GH ARRP? Association of Retire Republican Philistines.
Phil Cardarella
5 months, 3 weeks agoKansas’ Klown Kris Kobach is a top embarrassment in a State and Party where there is intense competition for that title.
Of course, I suspect that those who dismiss him as a poor, benighted true-believer forced to wallow in ignorance are…well, just too kind. He is really just another ambitious lawyer seeking power and money by appealing to benighted true believers who are ignorant — but some of whom are really rich or have access to public money to pay him for his “consultations”.
Alumni should refrain from giving any contributions to UMKC until it issues a formal apology for undermining the value of our degrees by hiring him as a professor at the Law School — and giving him undeserved credibility.