Kris Kobach is looking to remaking Kansas voting. While his work to create dual-track voting as well as his work on immigration and ALEC issues has created a lot of attention, his next move to reach further into Kansas will be bringing back old-school voting tools.
http://cjonline.com/...
Secretary of State Kris Kobach praised straight party ticket voting as a way to speed up the voting process while speaking Wednesday about legislation the House Democratic leader called ironic.
Kobach, a Republican, spoke in favor of two bills before the House Elections Committee. One would bring back straight party ticket voting — allowing voters to select all the Republicans or all the Democrats on the ballot with a single action.
Kris Kobach went on to highlight the fact that voting right now may be too difficult, and simplifying the way we vote might be a way to attract more voters.
“So even if you don’t intend to vote a straight ticket option, you can use this to help speed up the process of voting and if you don’t want to use it at all you don’t have to,” Kobach said. “I think speeding up elections is important and I think voters are capable of understanding what a straight ticket option is.”
Speedy voting appears to be ideal. In a blistering response during testimony, Wichita Democrat John Carmichael fired back.
Carmichael argued that such standards simply promoted mindless voters:
In written testimony opposing the bill, Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said that straight party ticket voting could cause “mindless” voting.
“No matter how much it might speed up the process on Election Day, I believe voters should think before they vote. We hear much about voters needing to be informed on the issues and candidates before they go to the polls. Straight ticket voting requires neither. Instead, it encourages uninformed members of the electorate to simply mark one box and leave,” Carmichael wrote.
But it was the back and forth within the meeting that created the zingers that people will remember.
The questioning of the plan led to a back and forth of two prominent Kansas attorneys in Carmichael and Kobach, which led to a Democrat deciding to make the point clear that this would not be legislation taken for granted, despite the makeup of the legislative body.
Representative Carmichael jumped at opportunities to point out contradictions in Kris Kobach's basic assertion and to get a few laughs in as well.
As Kris Kobach detailed the lengthy nature of voting, and how a Straight Ticket would allow voters to vote more quickly, Representative Carmichael pointed out this would be contradictory with the idea of collapsing spring, non-partisan elections with fall elections. By combining spring & fall, Carmichael argued, you extend the ballot and make the process much longer.
As Kobach walked through the steps and while he favored the law, he transitioned to pointing out issues with the courts and rulings, leading to one of the more humorous exchanges in the state house today:
Kris Kobach, however, may already have his eyes elsewhere. A theater in Great Bend, KS proudly promotes an upcoming event: "Kris Kobach 2016 Engage". What is interesting about this event is that 2016 is a year for the Senate and US House.. there are no statewide races.
Is Kris Kobach prepared to make the jump and challenge Jerry Moran for US Senate? Or, is Moran prepared to step aside in hopes of making a run at the statehouse in 2018? No one is sure - but for today, Kris Kobach is the Secretary of State who wants to bring state ticket voting to a state while extending the ballot to "speed up" things.