Republican Kris Kobach stopped by Wichita yesterday afternoon in his trip across Kansas supporting his candidacy for the Kansas Secretary of State.
Kobach’s main reason for running, he says, is ACORN and the voter fraud it spreads. “It is a political organization, but it is also a criminal enterprise. It’s a criminal enterprise that is either under investigation or has been successfully prosecuted in 14 states.” ACORN is to receive $400 million in the federal stimulus plan, he said.
Kobach outlined several things he wants to do to reduce voter fraud.
Kobach says we need to require photo ID to vote in Kansas. This has been approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
We also need to require voters, when they register to vote for the first time, to prove that they’re U.S. citizens.
We also need to purge the voter rolls, eliminating those who have died, are not U.S. citizens, or have moved away.
Purging the voter rolls of non-citizens will prompt a lawsuit by the ACLU, Kobach said, but it has lost these suits.
We also need to change the method of prosecution of voter fraud. There have been documented cases of voter fraud, he said, but no prosecutions. Currently the Secretary of State’s office refers suspected cases to local district attorneys, but these cases are judged as less important than other crimes, and therefore aren’t prosecuted. He advocates having an attorney in the Secretary’s office that would prepare cases and assist local district attorneys in prosecutions.
Kobach said that “if you actually start enforcing the law, people start following the law,” the point being that starting to enforce the law will make the difference.
Kansas is one of the most vulnerable states to voter fraud, Kobach said. His aspiration is to make Kansas a model of election security.
The Wichita Eagle’s Dion Lefler attended the event and contributes coverage in Two area lawmakers back Kobach secretary of state candidacy. His previous coverage is at Kobach to run for secretary of state. The Eagle’s Rhonda Holman voices her skepticism of widespread voter fraud in her editorial Beware of claims of voter fraud.
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