Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has vowed to fight voter fraud, but so far his efforts have only yielded six convictions — mostly of older Republican men:
Randall Killian thought he was investing in his new retirement property in Colorado when he received a mail-in ballot in 2012 asking if he would like to legalize marijuana in that state.
“When I saw that on the ballot, it's like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s something I’ll never get a chance to vote for again. So bam! I vote on it,” Killian says. “Voted in Ellis County (Kansas), just like I’d done for 25 years.”
Problem was: Amendment 64 was a Colorado issue, on a Colorado ballot. Killian, who lives in Hays, Kansas, also voted in his home state that year. Four years later, in early 2016, Killian learned of his mistake from a reporter.
“All of a sudden,” he says, “I’m indicted.”
Killian’s votes got him caught up in Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s high-profile crusade against voter fraud and brought to light one of Kobach’s most important, if flawed, tools: the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program. Housing half of all U.S. voter registrations, Crosscheck gained national attention this year after Kobach advised President Donald Trump in connection with the president’s false claims of pervasive voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.
In Kobach’s hands in Kansas, Crosscheck has evolved into a tool for shoring up claims of voter fraud instead of its original intention of keeping voter rolls accurate. And critics say that mission inappropriately targets voters who made innocent mistakes and shouldn’t be criminally charged.
`Poster boy for fraud’
Flagged in the Crosscheck system as having voted in both Colorado and Kansas, Killian was charged by Kobach, who announced it in an October 2015 press release. In April 2016, Killian, 63, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of “voting without being qualified” and paid the $2,500 fine.
“Now I’m the poster boy for voter fraud,” Killian says, “not only in Kansas but throughout the country.”
Kobach, the only secretary of state in the U.S. with prosecutorial powers, has won six convictions on double voting charges made since the Kansas Legislature handed him those rights in 2015. All six cases came from Crosscheck, according to Kobach’s office, mostly older Republican males, with just one Democrat and one woman.
Have questions about being registered in two states? Click here.
Kobach touts the Crosscheck program as a powerful tool that has been used to help states keep voter rolls accurate and current. It was created in 2005 in Kansas as a service to three nearby states, but Kobach has promoted and grown Crosscheck, offering it for free to the other 30 states currently in the system.
Kobach didn’t respond to several requests from KCUR for an interview, although his office assisted with some details.
Critics say that in the hands of Kobach, Crosscheck has become a means to his political ambitions and dismiss outright that there are problems with double voting.
Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander says officials must obviously protect the integrity of elections. But too many politicians, including Kobach, incorrectly use data from Crosscheck and similar programs to hurt voters, he says.
"They too often use these systems to come up with an excuse to kick eligible voters off the voting rolls or to start witch hunts to scare voters," Kander says.
On Tuesday, Kander, who lost a close race for U.S. Senate in November, launched "Let America Vote," a non-profit aimed at "winning the public debate over voter suppression." He was joined by, as The Hill noted, "a who’s who of progressive politics," including former Obama staffers.
Crosscheck rife with ‘false positives’
Although falsely amplified on President Trump’s Twitter account in January, it’s actually not illegal to be registered to vote in two states. In fact, it happens all the time as people move frequently or own property in several places. Rarely does anyone call their state elections office to update their address.
It is illegal, however, to vote in two states during the same election, a law most of us don’t know about. It also very rarely happens. An academic analysis released last month titled “One Person, One Vote,” found that double voting in the 2012 election was 0.02 percent, and likely much lower.
That hasn’t stopped Kobach, who inherited the Crosscheck program when he came into office in 2011 and used it to not only seek convictions but to support his unproven claims of high numbers of illegal voting.
During an August 2015 edition of KCUR’s Statehouse Blend podcast, Kobach was promoting another of his criticized plans — requiring an ID before voting.
Kobach turned to double voting, which he said was one of the easiest ways to perpetrate voter fraud. He said 125,000 people were registered to vote in Kansas and another state. But that doesn’t jibe with a presentation he gave to the National Association of State Election Directors in 2013 when he said Crosscheck found around 80,000 double registrations from Kansas. And Kobach never answered whether those matching registrations, which are not illegal, lead to double voting, potentially not legal.
Even Kobach’s office admits, in a Crosscheck participation guide given to states, that the system is rife with “false positives and not double votes,” as it only looks for matches of first name, last name and date of birth, so lots of people with common names are found. If each state doesn’t spend the money to investigate all the dual registrations, it could erroneously knock too many names from voter rolls, critics charge.
Mark Johnson, a Kansas City attorney who has fought Kobach in court over voter suppression cases, says Crosscheck is often wrong because it doesn’t use other identifiers, like Social Security numbers, middle names or initials, or whether a male voter is a junior or senior with the same name.
“He’s grandstanding,” Johnson says. “He has used this minimal number of prosecutions in a way that I think is inappropriate. He has forced these people to plead guilty to crimes, to pay fines, to pay lawyers, when it all could have been done by sending a letter and then putting out a press release.”
KCUR contacted some of the people Kobach has charged. Through their attorneys, they refused requests for interviews, citing reports already in the media and their wishes that the attention would die down.
Killian felt much the same way, but talked to KCUR hoping to tell his side of the story, a side he says he’s disappointed Kobach didn’t seek. In addition to the $2,500 fine, Killian says he’s out several thousands in attorney’s fees but didn’t want to fight the case because it could have cost him in the tens of thousands.
He’s embarrassed at the attention the case has received and he’s angry he’s still getting calls from reporters. Still, he says he holds no animosity toward Kobach and feels going after voter fraud is a good idea.
“(Kobach) or his office never called me to ask my side of the story,” Killian says “He was able to see what he wanted to see and felt like he could make a case which would enhance his opportunity for political advancement.”
Looking at the same set of facts in Killian’s case, Tom Drees, the Ellis County, Kansas, prosecutor, opted not to file charges. Drees said he didn’t think a jury, looking at a man with a spotless record and paying property taxes in two states, would convict Killian.
http://kcur.org/post/kansans-caught...led-out-kobachs-voter-fraud-campaign#stream/0
Randall Killian thought he was investing in his new retirement property in Colorado when he received a mail-in ballot in 2012 asking if he would like to legalize marijuana in that state.
“When I saw that on the ballot, it's like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s something I’ll never get a chance to vote for again. So bam! I vote on it,” Killian says. “Voted in Ellis County (Kansas), just like I’d done for 25 years.”
Problem was: Amendment 64 was a Colorado issue, on a Colorado ballot. Killian, who lives in Hays, Kansas, also voted in his home state that year. Four years later, in early 2016, Killian learned of his mistake from a reporter.
“All of a sudden,” he says, “I’m indicted.”
Killian’s votes got him caught up in Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s high-profile crusade against voter fraud and brought to light one of Kobach’s most important, if flawed, tools: the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program. Housing half of all U.S. voter registrations, Crosscheck gained national attention this year after Kobach advised President Donald Trump in connection with the president’s false claims of pervasive voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.
In Kobach’s hands in Kansas, Crosscheck has evolved into a tool for shoring up claims of voter fraud instead of its original intention of keeping voter rolls accurate. And critics say that mission inappropriately targets voters who made innocent mistakes and shouldn’t be criminally charged.
`Poster boy for fraud’
Flagged in the Crosscheck system as having voted in both Colorado and Kansas, Killian was charged by Kobach, who announced it in an October 2015 press release. In April 2016, Killian, 63, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of “voting without being qualified” and paid the $2,500 fine.
“Now I’m the poster boy for voter fraud,” Killian says, “not only in Kansas but throughout the country.”
Kobach, the only secretary of state in the U.S. with prosecutorial powers, has won six convictions on double voting charges made since the Kansas Legislature handed him those rights in 2015. All six cases came from Crosscheck, according to Kobach’s office, mostly older Republican males, with just one Democrat and one woman.
Have questions about being registered in two states? Click here.
Kobach touts the Crosscheck program as a powerful tool that has been used to help states keep voter rolls accurate and current. It was created in 2005 in Kansas as a service to three nearby states, but Kobach has promoted and grown Crosscheck, offering it for free to the other 30 states currently in the system.
Kobach didn’t respond to several requests from KCUR for an interview, although his office assisted with some details.
Critics say that in the hands of Kobach, Crosscheck has become a means to his political ambitions and dismiss outright that there are problems with double voting.
Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander says officials must obviously protect the integrity of elections. But too many politicians, including Kobach, incorrectly use data from Crosscheck and similar programs to hurt voters, he says.
"They too often use these systems to come up with an excuse to kick eligible voters off the voting rolls or to start witch hunts to scare voters," Kander says.
On Tuesday, Kander, who lost a close race for U.S. Senate in November, launched "Let America Vote," a non-profit aimed at "winning the public debate over voter suppression." He was joined by, as The Hill noted, "a who’s who of progressive politics," including former Obama staffers.
Crosscheck rife with ‘false positives’
Although falsely amplified on President Trump’s Twitter account in January, it’s actually not illegal to be registered to vote in two states. In fact, it happens all the time as people move frequently or own property in several places. Rarely does anyone call their state elections office to update their address.
It is illegal, however, to vote in two states during the same election, a law most of us don’t know about. It also very rarely happens. An academic analysis released last month titled “One Person, One Vote,” found that double voting in the 2012 election was 0.02 percent, and likely much lower.
That hasn’t stopped Kobach, who inherited the Crosscheck program when he came into office in 2011 and used it to not only seek convictions but to support his unproven claims of high numbers of illegal voting.
During an August 2015 edition of KCUR’s Statehouse Blend podcast, Kobach was promoting another of his criticized plans — requiring an ID before voting.
Kobach turned to double voting, which he said was one of the easiest ways to perpetrate voter fraud. He said 125,000 people were registered to vote in Kansas and another state. But that doesn’t jibe with a presentation he gave to the National Association of State Election Directors in 2013 when he said Crosscheck found around 80,000 double registrations from Kansas. And Kobach never answered whether those matching registrations, which are not illegal, lead to double voting, potentially not legal.
Even Kobach’s office admits, in a Crosscheck participation guide given to states, that the system is rife with “false positives and not double votes,” as it only looks for matches of first name, last name and date of birth, so lots of people with common names are found. If each state doesn’t spend the money to investigate all the dual registrations, it could erroneously knock too many names from voter rolls, critics charge.
Mark Johnson, a Kansas City attorney who has fought Kobach in court over voter suppression cases, says Crosscheck is often wrong because it doesn’t use other identifiers, like Social Security numbers, middle names or initials, or whether a male voter is a junior or senior with the same name.
“He’s grandstanding,” Johnson says. “He has used this minimal number of prosecutions in a way that I think is inappropriate. He has forced these people to plead guilty to crimes, to pay fines, to pay lawyers, when it all could have been done by sending a letter and then putting out a press release.”
KCUR contacted some of the people Kobach has charged. Through their attorneys, they refused requests for interviews, citing reports already in the media and their wishes that the attention would die down.
Killian felt much the same way, but talked to KCUR hoping to tell his side of the story, a side he says he’s disappointed Kobach didn’t seek. In addition to the $2,500 fine, Killian says he’s out several thousands in attorney’s fees but didn’t want to fight the case because it could have cost him in the tens of thousands.
He’s embarrassed at the attention the case has received and he’s angry he’s still getting calls from reporters. Still, he says he holds no animosity toward Kobach and feels going after voter fraud is a good idea.
“(Kobach) or his office never called me to ask my side of the story,” Killian says “He was able to see what he wanted to see and felt like he could make a case which would enhance his opportunity for political advancement.”
Looking at the same set of facts in Killian’s case, Tom Drees, the Ellis County, Kansas, prosecutor, opted not to file charges. Drees said he didn’t think a jury, looking at a man with a spotless record and paying property taxes in two states, would convict Killian.
http://kcur.org/post/kansans-caught...led-out-kobachs-voter-fraud-campaign#stream/0
