Voter Fraud

Congress cites the Heritage Foundation, which has recorded 12-16 instances of voter fraud in Kansas since 2005, most of them being duplicate voting, wherein a person with ties to two states votes in both. Sharing information with other states has proven valuable in catching these crimes.

Scott Schwab, our current secretary of state, maintains that Kansas does not have a problem with voter fraud or election security (wikipedia). Evidence indicates he’s correct, but we need to maintain vigilance all the same.

Less substantiated claims of voter fraud include voting by non-citizens, voting under a deceased voter’s registration, and using mail-in ballots to duplicate vote. The fact that no one can come up with any evidence of these crimes being widespread seems to indicate that our current system of keeping voter registration up to date, checking IDs, and tracking mail in ballots works quite well. All the same, we need to review and it regularly and maintain it. Just because it works now doesn’t mean it will keep working if we let go of the reins.

I'll make sure we have a thorough and unbroken paper trail at every election site, for every vote. If there is widespread voter fraud going on, it won't stay hidden long. If there's a need for a recount, we'll be ready the moment we're done counting ballots the first time around.

Hackers can steal an election if it's all done online. Nobody can hack hard copy ballots on paper.

Update: I'm fairly impressed with the county election offices I've visited so far. They take the paper trail seriously. That said, there are more than 100 counties in Kansas I've yet to visit, so anything could happen.

Also, it's been brought to my attention that the state should provide more guidance, training, and support to each county's test run (officially called a "Full Logic and Accuracy Test") before processing actual ballots. I intend to follow through with that suggestion.

Scott Schwab, Kansas's current Secretary of State, Republican

Scott Schwab is recorded as disagreeing with President Trump about the prevalence of voter fraud.

I respect the amount of backbone he has shown by doing so.

Currently, Schwab is one of many, many Republicans running for governor.

Image courtesy wikipedia

Voter Suppression

This is a lot more complicated. Voter suppression can be overt and violent, or it can be subtle and indirect. Sometimes it’s not even clear if it’s deliberate at all, or just a conflation bad luck. Most forms of voter suppression don’t stop anyone from voting exactly, they just pile on more and more inconveniences in the hope that "undesirable" people will give up and go home.

It's an insidious art. Politicians create rules that make it harder for people they don't like to vote, then set up excuses to make it sound like the reason for the new rule is something wholly different and perfectly innocent. And some politicians are very skilled at it.

Ending the 3-day grace period for mail-in ballots

About a quarter of mail-in ballots arrive after election day. But it has been Kansas policy to count them if they arrive up to three days late, until recently.

Republican legislators have for years been trying to end this grace period, unsuccessfully thanks to Governor Laura Kelly’s veto. They’ve managed to override the veto. Now any vote that arrives after the ballots close is simply lost.

This is a major problem for anyone who can’t physically make it out there for any reason. We need the mail-in ballot system to work as a safety net to pick up where our physical ballot sites fall short. Everyone’s situation is different. But that doesn’t mean they have to fall through the cracks.

Almost every other state has longer mail-in voting periods. We need to get with the program. Not only do we need to challenge this law, we need to start the mail-in period much sooner.

But like everything in politics, that's a tradeoff. Some counties are still dealing with a backlog of voter registrations to process when the mail-in period begins. We'll have to figure out what it's going to take to solve the registration backlog problem so we don't set ourselves up for mistakes with the ballots.

The postal system is slower than it used to be. A lot of mail takes 7-9 days to arrive, just in town. If ballots go out 20 days before the election, take nine days to get to you, and nine days to get back... Do your own math.

Do you remember in Trump’s first term when he tried to defund the postal service? Mail delivery slowed to a near-halt. If that happened again during election season, the odds of your mail-in vote being counted will go from dicey to dismal.

For the 2026 election, you should probably plan on voting in person if humanly possible. I’m not secretary of state now, so I can’t fix this mess yet.

Yet.

If you need to vote by mail, fill out our ballot and put it in a ballot drop box. Don't even chance it to the postal system. If you do have to mail it, send it back the same day you get it. If you put it off, life just might get in the way. Don't give it the chance.

There are people who want you to get distracted, forget about it for a while, and mail it when it's too late. Don't give them what they want.

The SAVE Act

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, currently approved by the US House of Representatives and waiting on the Senate, ostensibly is about prohibiting non-citizens from voting. It sounds harmless as it’s just re-condemning something already illegal.

Included in the SAVE Act is a provision that requires showing up in person when registering to vote, with proof of citizenship – this is generally accepted to mean either a passport or birth certificate.

It’s a subtle attack on people who can’t easily come up with the time to take a trip out to the county courthouse, or might have other things going on and be prone to forget.

It’s a much more overt attack on people who changed their names at some point in life and so don’t match their birth certificate anymore. It’s generally assumed that this was intended to disenfranchise transgender voters, though it’s been pointed out repeatedly that women who changed their names at marriage will suffer the same treatment.

If passed, it will be a federal law. We can (and will) challenge it in the courts, but states don’t have the power to override federal laws. Even if we can’t overturn it, we’ll do whatever we can to make sure it doesn’t stop Kansans from voting. We’ll be proactive about making sure our voter registration is up to date before the next election. If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you.

For 2026, keep an eye out for whether or not the SAVE Act is signed into law. If so, get your documents in order.

-If your name still matches what’s on your birth certificate, you should be clear to register to vote. Look up where you need to go to do so, and don't delay.

-If your name has changed, it’s possible to get a passport with your new name, if you have legal name change documents.

-Passports cost money (plan on $165, or $225 if you pay to get it rushed), and they take at least a month to order. Plan well in advance so you don’t miss the registration deadline.

Passports -- US State Department

-It's also possible with appropriate documentation to get your name on your birth certificate changed. This will cost at least $40 -- $20 for the administrative fee and $20 for each copy of the amended birth certificate.

Amending a Kansas birth certificate

It is no longer possible to get your listed sex changed, due to SB 180 (passed Feb. 2023)

Just recently, the Kansas Supreme Court restored Kansans' right to get the listed sex on a driver's license changed. Supposedly the change should go into effect in just a few days. We'll see how smoothly that goes.

During the 2024 election, two ballot drop boxes, one in Oregon and another in Washington state, were set on fire. The legitimate votes inside were lost, never counted.

In this era of increased, sometimes near-violent political polarization, people are bracing against the possibility of ballot locations being shut down with bomb threats or direct violence. Thankfully these heinous acts haven’t come to Kansas yet, but we can’t rest on the assumption that they never will.

What I've seen so far indicates counties are pretty inconsistent about how well prepared they are for violence. I'd like every county to have plans in place, but especially the more urban counties that have diverse populations that don't always get along with each other.

But like with everything, there's a catch. The way Kansas is set up, counties pay for their own elections with very little support from the state. Rural and urban counties have drastically different budgets. I can tell county officials about about how I want them to harden election sites against violence all day, but I need to secure funding for them before I can really expect it to get done. I'll have to petition lawmakers for the resources to make it happen. With the state budget in the shape it's in, that's going to be like getting blood from a tumbleweed, but we have to try. There's a lot at stake.

Ultimately, I want to see good, unobtrusive security around all our ballot drop boxes. I want to see tactful, plainclothes security at each ballot location ready to stop an active shooter. And I want every location to have a plan in place to get people and paper ballots to safety in case of a bomb threat.

To quote a sentence every gun owner knows, "I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

Violence didn’t stop democracy in 1776, and it won’t now.

Ballot Location Closures

Nationwide, there’s a trend that there are fewer ballot locations with each passing election. This means a longer trip to get to your location, bigger crowds, and longer lines. That comes down harder on us working class folks who can’t always afford to take a half a day off work to go vote. Yes your employer is legally required to give you that time off, but can you afford to lose the hours off your paycheck?

A lot of this is about security; schools that used to host elections quit doing so because of how difficult it is to open up the building to the general public while classes are in session, and likewise with churches that add daycares.

In other states, people say this trend looks suspicious. More stringent voting laws take more resources to comply with, so organizations in poor neighborhoods who can’t comply as easily have to back out. That leaves the residents there having to travel farther to exercise their right to vote. And what if you don’t have a working car on election day? That's something the rich guys down the street never have to worry about.

This is tricky because it isn’t wholly under our control; churches and other ballot locations sign up of their own volition. I’ll work with whoever I have to to make sure the people in our state, rural and urban alike, have a local place to go to vote.

This is especially important with the reliability of mail-in ballots being chipped away.

Ken Rahjes image courtesy Ballotpedia.

Both currently declared Republican primary contenders for Kansas Secretary of State, Ken Rahjes of Agra and Pat Proctor of Leavenworth, voted to end the 3-day grace period. That to me suggests priorities that are very different than mine. I'm looking to include every eligible Kansas voter. They're not.

Pat Proctor image also courtesy Ballotpedia.

Local Issues

My meetings with county election officials so far have been quite positive, but there are a few problems that stand out to me.

In one county, I was shocked to learn that the ballots close at 5 pm on election day. Every Kansas in-person voter should get their full 7 am to 7 pm.

I understand this is largely a resource issue; Kansas government is structured so counties are almost entirely on their own to set up and fund elections. Of course I'll tell them to give the citizens their 7 to 7, but in order to make it happen I'll have to work to secure the funding they need.

In another county, plans to deal with political violence sounded like a low priority. I understand no one wants to think about that sort of thing, but that isn't realistic to the highly polarized reality we live in now. Don't believe me? Try asking Melissa Hortman. Or Charlie Kirk. (Or Paul Pelosi, or Donald Trump, or Josh Shapiro.....)

Given tight state and local election office budgets, the only way I see to keep ballot locations protected will be to work closely with county sheriffs' offices. Their job, after all, is to protect and serve. I'll be watching to make sure they do so gracefully and effectively.

Business Taxes and Registration

The owner of a new business I spoke with called the process of figuring out what taxes were owed “nightmarish”.

Clearly, we have a problem.

Elections are my top priority and reason for running in the first place, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep on this part of the job. We need to simplify the whole system of getting businesses registered and up to date on their state obligations. Or, at the very least, we need to organize all that information in one place, so business owners don’t have to hunt down regulations on how their tax obligations change as they add staff. I’ll welcome feedback on how to make the system quicker and easier.

I’ve worked for small business owners before. I’ve seen how hard it is in this economy just to turn a profit, or even stay in business at all. They already have to deal with payroll. And inventory. And marketing. And hiring. And a dozen other things. Let’s make registration and taxation as simple as we can, so they can focus on every other thing that needs attention. Small businesses are the driving force of a healthy economy. We need to be encouraging them, not scaring them off.

Update: I'm having trouble confirming this because I'm not "in the loop" on State government business, but I heard second-hand that the State's contract with the company that built the Kansas Secretary of State website expires around election time.

If true, that gives us an excellent opportunity to contract with a new web company and rebuild the site entirely. I mean a real company, not some hack like me who made this campaign website by myself with my basement computer.

It seems no one is happy with the current website: not business owners, not county election officials, no one. I would of course like to contract with a Kansas company, but my top priority on this subject is making a website people can actually use.