The Kansas State House moved today to send legislation to Sam Brownback which would significantly increase the role of the Kansas Secretary of State. Kris Kobach, in earlier testimony to the house had argued that his office needed prosecutorial power in order to make sure that cases of voter fraud and voter malfeasance could be prosecuted directly by his office rather than through county and city prosecutors.
Kobach has long alleged that voter fraud and malfeasance was serious in Kansas, but had been unable to produce statistical evidence to verify those claims. In research by the Associated Press, the US Attorney Barry Grissom took Kobach to task for making up many of his claims.
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[I]n a Nov. 6 letter sent from Grissom to Kobach and obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request, the prosecutor responded that his office received no such referrals from Kobach, and chided the secretary of state for his statements.
“Going forward, if your office determines there has been an act of voter fraud please forward the matter to me for investigation and prosecution,” Grissom wrote. “Until then, so we can avoid misstatements of facts for the future, for the record, we have received no voter fraud cases from your office in over four and a half years. And, I can assure you, I do know what I’m talking about.”
Kobach later amended his argument, saying that two cases had been referred by a predecessor; those cases were dismissed by the US Attorney's office as not voter fraud.
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Senate Bill 34 would upgrade several voting crimes from misdemeanors to felonies while giving Kobach the authority to prosecute individuals for voting crime. Kubic says if the bill becomes law, Kobach would have a power not given to any other secretary of state in the U-S.
Kobach, who will now have powers afforded to no other Secretary of State in the nation will be able to enforce the newly empowered laws.
John Carmichael, (D-Wichita) had questioned in session today whether or not this change of powers for the office "fundamentally changed" the position in a way that voters were not aware of at the time ballots were cast. By changing the nature of the office, Carmichael argued, the rules of the game were being altered mid-stream.
The bill, which passed by a 1 vote margin is expected to be signed shortly, and Kris Kobach becomes the first SoS who can prosecute in the country.
The question for many is whether or not Secretary of State Kobach will be able to find the crimes to justify this alteration of his office.