It was only a few short days ago that Representative Steve Watkins was caught filing FEC reports listing his physical address as a PO Box in Topeka. This drew the ire of Republicans in the district, who are seeking to oust Watkins, and have promoted their own candidate.
The infighting intensified again today, and there really isn’t anyone to blame for it but Watkins himself. In an attempt to fix his bogus voter registration, Watkins re-registered, but.. well, I’ll let The Kansas City Star explain:
Watkins’ new registration lists him at 1310 SW Overlook Drive in Topeka, the business address of The Overlook Apartments. But Watkins did not provide a specific apartment address, which could be an issue because the complex sits on the boundary of two state Senate districts.
“A third of the (complex) is in one Senate district and two-thirds is in another Senate district,” said Shawnee County Election Commissioner Andrew Howell.
Howell said the Shawnee County Election Office entered the address provided by Watkins into its system this week believing it to be his complete address.
“But upon further review I think we’re going to have to do some more digging,” Howell said. “I don’t recall seeing an apartment number on there.”
That’s right. Rather than list any apartment he actually lives at, Rep. Watkins instead listed the business office of the complex, which is also not really a livable space.
Shawnee County District Attorney and Republicans have already vowed to tighten up the rules and investigate whether or not Watkins committed voter fraud by voting in the wrong district in the 2019 local elections, but now, having listed another business as to where he lives some may just wonder about the level of attention to detail his staff actually puts in during the day.
Kansas statute make one rule pretty clear: voters who register must provide their actual living address in order to make sure they vote in the right races on the ballot.
At least the congressman has upgraded from living inside of a postal box to living inside of a leasing office. What is true in both places is that there is no shower to wash off the stink.