A Kanas House panel on Wednesday moved a bill that would repeal the secretary of state’s unique authority to prosecute voter fraud.
Backed by Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the legislation would leave the prosecution authority with the attorney general as well as county and district attorneys. The legislation, approved by the House corrections committee, now goes to the full House for approval.
Prosecution authority was one of the signature – and controversial – accomplishments of former Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who engendered national controversy in his effort to crack down on voter fraud.
Kobach, who just lost a campaign for governor, persuaded the Legislature in 2015 to give him the ability to bring cases against voter fraud. He was the only state election official in the country to have the ability to prosecute cases.
However, Kobach prosecuted 15 cases in three years, leading critics to say that Kobach’s claims about voter fraud in Kansas have proved again to be exaggerated. They say the secretary of state would have been better off encouraging people to vote.
Overall, the secretary of state secured guilty pleas or convictions in all but one of the 14 cases that have been completed, according to a list provided by the secretary’s office to the Sunflower State Journal. Fines ranged from $500 to $6,000. No one served any jail time.
One of the cases is still pending in Johnson County District Court, and one case was dropped.
