Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State has had a rough week, mostly battling the fight of him discussing ethnic cleansing. It still doesn't stop him from asking for extended power in beginning prosecution.
http://www2.ljworld.com/...
Topeka — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says that next year he'll revive a proposal to give his office the power to prosecute election fraud cases.
But the secretary of state's office can't initiate election fraud prosecutions on its own. Such decisions are left to county or federal prosecutors.
Kobach began his quest of changing voting rights by instituting a 2-track voting system, which Kansas dealt with this year, and I addressed last year:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
On November 7th, though, Kobach found that higher courts ruled that his decision to demand layers of proof to vote could not apply to the federal form:
http://www.projectvote.org/...
Today, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the earlier District Court decision and ruled that Arizona and Kansas cannot require the EAC to add documentary proof of citizenship to the federal form. The Court found that “the NVRA preempts Arizona’s and Kansas’ state laws,” and that therefore “the EAC is not compulsorily mandated to approve state-requested changes to the Federal Form.”
This means that eligible residents can continue to use the federal form to register to vote in those states without facing additional barriers.
However, concerns abound in Kansas tonight, as under the dual-track system, those who register using the federal form are not legally entitled to vote in state level races. Should Kobach's standard hold, voters who use the federal form to register and proceed to vote in local races (Governor, Secretary of State, AG, all state house & state senate races) may, in fact, be committing voter fraud in his world view.
Now, Kobach asks for an expansion of powers to go around county and federal prosecutors to begin prosecutions out of the SoS office for violations of the Kansas voter guidelines.
No one is sure what implications this expansion of power would have - or how Kansas, currently dealing with massive funding shortfalls. In a state that is debating if we have enough money to track registered sex offenders, apparently more funds to prosecute those who may be filing the wrong voter registration form and expand Kris Kobach's power is a top priority for our SoS.