In 2015, the Kansas legislature gave Kris Kobach (R), the secretary of state, the authority to prosecute instances of voter fraud.
Before this measure, it was up to local district attorneys to investigate and prosecute.
During the debate on the measure, Kobach assured the state legislature that he had uncovered 100 (and then later 200) cases of double voting. Yet, seven months into this executive power grab, only 6 people have been prosecuted under the new law.
Kobach's numbers should have been considered suspicious -- from 1997 to 2010, only 11 cases of voter fraud had been prosecuted in the entire state. However, Kobach believed the number was this low because of the inefficiencies of local offices in prosecuting what he argued was an enormous problem.
It seems that Kobach is facing what every other state has faced that has tried to eliminate the boogey-man of voter fraud -- only to find that they have spent a lot of money with little results.
Voter Registration Fraud is Rampant Nationwide, Actual Voter Fraud is Almost Non-existent
There's a false dichotomy that fuels the boogey-man myth of widespread voter fraud. It's well known that voter registration fraud is rampant, so therefore voter fraud must be rampant as well.
This of course neglects to examine the reasons for the widespread registration fraud.
Canvassers who get paid a commission on get-out-the-vote campaigns by political parties are all too tempted to throw in the occasional 'Bart Simpson,' 'Chuck Norris,' or 'Mickey Mouse' to the roles -- it pads their paycheck.While it's definitely best when they use absurd names (at least it's easier to weed out), they also at times just use real names, whether or not they actually saw or talked to the person.
This of course gets dead people, people that have moved, and people who are already registered on the lists -- sometimes multiple times.
This is the political party's fault, and they know it.
In 2012, the Republican Party paid $3 million to a consulting firm to get out the vote in hotly contested Florida counties. Instead of boosting the party's roles, a massive scandal ensued, showing the nature of what happens when firms are paid to get results... they register dead people.
Democrats face similar catastrophes, and are often shamed for not doing enough to stop it.
But in the end, party politics creates an overwhelming amount of voter registration fraud in the United States. Yet all 'post mortem' analysis on elections always shows that real voter fraud is almost nonexistent.
There Should be Vigilance: In all Possible Areas of Election Fraud
While Kobach is busy prosecuting his six offenders, he has totally ignored allegations of widespread voting machine fraud in the 2014 midterm elections.
This is almost unforgivable. If Kobach is the self-appointed, legislatively endorsed champion of the ballot box, then he should be just that -- in all possible areas of election fraud.Dr. Beth Clarkson
will have her day in court, trying to gain the ability to conduct an independent audit of the paper records from the 2014 Kansas vote, after being given a deliberate cold shoulder by all parties, passing off her claims as trivial and unsubstantiated.
Kobach, while not a part of the lawsuit, has been a significant part of the problem in Dr. Clarkson's efforts to conduct a full audit, and has definitely not played his role of champion of the ballot box.
Therein lies the biggest problems: politicians are only interested in certain kinds of 'fraud,' usually the kinds that hurt their own party. Put any of them in a position where they are forced to actually honor the integrity of the system, regardless of ilk, and they freeze up.
This makes for a system that is almost as bad as literal ballot box stuffing, one that only cares about protecting the ruling party's chances in future elections.
That's cronyism, not democracy.