WICHITA — Two prominent Wichita-area state legislators on Wednesday endorsed the fledgling secretary of state candidacy of former Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kris Kobach.
Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, and Rep. Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, spoke up for Kobach during a campaign kickoff event that drew about 30 people to a windy and chilly Old Town farmers market square.
“He’s a lifelong Republican; he believes in our cause,” said Watkins. “He’s not somebody that has traveled around and helped the dark side, if you will, and then come home to Kansas and said ‘I’m a Republican,’ because he thinks that’s the only way he’s going to get elected.”
Both Watkins and Masterson spoke enthusiastically about voter-fraud prevention, which Kobach has made the keystone of his campaign.
Kobach is proposing a series of changes in election law including:
– Requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls.
– Requiring new voter registrants to prove citizenship by showing a birth certificate, passport or naturalization card.
– Purging the voter rolls to eliminate any noncitizens and voters who have moved or died.
– Creating a unit in the secretary of state’s office to investigate election fraud and assist district and county attorneys with prosecutions.
Masterson said he personally witnessed a case of election fraud recently.
“The guy who stood in front of me in line in the last election I was at, they put him aside because they said he’d already voted,” Masterson said. “This man had had … an absentee vote cast in his name, which he didn’t cast.” Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, also a Republican, has said that voter fraud is not the problem Kobach claims it to be.
His spokeswoman said there have been only eight convictions in 10 years, mostly involving people who lived near the Missouri and Colorado borders and voted in two states.
Kobach’s opponent in the race, business advocate and international election observer J.R. Claeys, of Salina, has also made vote fraud prevention a centerpiece of his campaign.
Kobach has been making a series of whistlestops around the state since formally announcing his candidacy on Tuesday.
He’s scheduled to speak Thursday in Salina, Garden City and Lakin. Claeys recently concluded a 15-county speaking tour.
9 Comments
The republican party cant seem to stop it’s race to the bottom. Kansas faces real problems that Kobach, Masterson, and Watkins apparently are willing to sublimate to chase the straw man of ‘voter fraud.’ How sad for we citizens.
Frank says the republican party can’t stop it’s race to the bottom. What??? You idiots can’t even find a decent candidate for governor because the democrat bench is so weak. Jenkins beat Boyda, Mckinney is only in his spot because he was appointed to fill a republican’s term because, again, Jenkins beat Boyda. Frank, come 2010 the only high level elected democrat will be Moore, and even that’s a maybe. And Masterson and Watkins don’t even know what a close election is – because the voters seem to approve big time! Voter fraud is the only hope the democrats have of winning anything in 2010 – must be why they are against ensuring honest elections.
Phill Kline found a way to serve four more years, by having his Kobach clone take over.
delbert – you rant and rave about how democrats need voter fraud to win elections but yet you praise Republicans as having won so many elections.
If Kobach is championing voter fraud as a current problem, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that Republicans have been enjoying the benefits of voter fraud and not the Democrats?
You might want to rethink your logic here. And that race to the bottom – nah, I think Republicans are already there.
“He’s a lifelong Republican; he believes in our cause.” -Rep. Jason Watkins.
The real question is whether the voters believe in your cause. I bet come election time you’ll find out we don’t.
Inasmuch as Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh does not appear to be going along with Kobach’s widespread voter fraud claim, the “fledgling” candidate and his supporters Masterson and Watkins look even more ridiculous as they continue to tell the tall tales. We might as well be sitting around the campfire. Since the record shows a negligible number of convictions, these “prominent” Wichita legislators are talking about what they “saw,” and what they “heard.” Well, anyone can make up a story that they saw this or saw that. It really does not mean very much. Most comical, however, is that the good old, birth certificate gambit is back. Here’s how it works: low-income people are as inclined as anyone to vote Democratic, but they might think twice about obtaining a copy of a birth certificate if it competes with putting food on the table or gas in the car. And putting the new rule in place gives maximum control to the Secretary of State on the subject of determining the pace with which these requests get processed. What with Kobach and his supporters so gung go to purge the voter rolls, it might be downright disheartening to see a bunch of pesky new registration requests coming in from people who show every indication of being open-minded about voting for candidates unapproved by Kobach. So Kobach would be faced with purging across the board. He would have to purge the existing rolls and purge the new requests. And while we’re on the subject, what criteria will Kobach and his supporters be using to “purge” the voter rolls? Once again, the Secretary of State would have maximum control, operating mostly out of the public eye, arbitrarily tweaking the numbers in the tradition of the Inquisition.
totoinks, Speaking of reasoning and flawed logic, nice strawman. the problem with your argument is that while republicans keep winning kansas elections, which kills Frank and MCS7584’s race to the bottom and “you wait till next time” points – we also keep passing legislation that attacks voter fraud and secures elections. So no, we’re not the ones in love with voter fraud – its the democrats. We don’t eat acorns, pun intended – you do! Its your democratic governor that keeps vetoing these bills. Its the democrats that don’t want voter ID laws, or even the requirement that a person show proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time. WHY?
A funny – I routinely hand them my drivers licence when I vote. I find it easier than going through spelling my name etc. Only problem is the type in the thing is hard to read – especially since so many of the poll workers are elderly.
While I am a “liberal” I support having IDs. My reasoning is that it can facilitate voting – especially advance voting. Look at the back or your DL – there is a magnetic strip and a 2-D barcode. I used that when I checked in at the airport to fly to Canada – it sped up the process. Do the same in voting – it can ID you and your pricinct and then provide the correct ballot. Then we can greatly expand ‘remore voting’ so I can vote anywhere in Sedgwick County instead of having to do it at home pricinct.
A comment of the BS ‘voter fraud’ claims: we have Republicans at both state (Thornburg) and County (Bill Gale) We seem to have very smooth and straight elections; I salute both of them.
I agree with bth. Again. Am I starting a pattern?