Bill authorizing Kobach to prosecute election crimes reapproved by House panel

A House committee on Monday reapproved a bill to give the secretary of state authority to prosecute election crimes, but it remained unclear whether the bill will make it to the House floor this year.

By a 14-8 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 34, which would grant Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s request for authority to prosecute election fraud.

Kobach has repeatedly stated his belief that Kansas elections are being tainted by fraudulent voting by non-citizen residents. He has also been the driving force behind the photo-identification and proof-of-citizenship laws now in force in Kansas.

The bill has been passed by the Senate. It moved through the House committee earlier this year, but wasn’t brought up for a floor vote during the regular session.

Monday’s vote keeps the bill alive during the ongoing wrap-up session, but it remains unclear whether it will actually get a floor vote that could send it to the governor for signature into law.

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Barker, R-Abilene, said the bill could get to the floor one of two ways:

▪ House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, could bring it up for a vote. However, Merrick has been reluctant to open the floor for bills that can be amended in open debate.

▪ The bill could be attached to another bill that is already in a House-Senate conference committee. However, Barker said it would have to be “germane” to any conference committee bill it might be attached to.

In Monday’s committee debate, opponents of the bill said it puts too much power in the hands of Kobach, a former Republican state party chairman who is an active participant in partisan politics as well as the state’s chief election officer.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, said the bill isn’t expanding prosecutorial power of professional prosecutors.

“We’re giving it to Kris Kobach, which is a whole different thing,” he said.

Ward said Kobach is the first secretary of state to have a political action committee to try to influence the elections he’s also charged with refereeing.

“It’s a bad idea to politicize the counting of votes,” Ward said.

But Rep. John Rubin, R-Shawnee, said the bill isn’t designed to give more authority to just Kobach, but to any future secretaries of state. He said it’s a good idea to give prosecutorial power because election officials know the most about election law.

“The expertise on these types of crimes uniquely resides in the secretary of state’s office,” he said.

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, tried three times to amend the bill.

One of his amendments would have gutted the bill, another would have required the state to prove election violations were done intentionally, and the third would have reduced some of the penalties.

Carmichael said he wanted to reserve criminal prosecution and penalties for those who knowingly try to commit fraud and not sweep in people who just make mistakes.

All of Carmichael’s amendments were voted down.

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Bill authorizing Kobach to prosecute election crimes reapproved by House panel."