Kansas anti-abortion activist loses bid to block ballot drop boxes

An anti-abortion activist’s lawsuit to block ballot drop boxes across Kansas failed Thursday after a Sedgwick County District Court judge threw out the case.

Mark Gietzen, director of the Kansas Coalition for Life and president of the Kansas Republican Assembly, sued Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Angela Caudillo earlier this month in an attempt to block the use of ballot drop boxes across the state. He cited fears that the drop boxes will be targeted for election fraud in the Aug. 2 election by opponents of the Value Them Both amendment, which will decide whether the Kansas constitution includes the right to an abortion.

After hearing brief arguments by Gietzen and lawyers from the county and state, Sedgwick County District Court Judge Deborah Hernandez Mitchell dismissed the lawsuit, saying Gietzen lacks standing. Gietzen was also denied a temporary injunction that would have suspended use of ballot drop boxes until his case was heard by the Kansas Court of Appeals or Kansas Supreme Court.

“Unless we had a hearing on the merits in regards to a temporary injunction, I will not be restraining anyone from using the ballot boxes,” Mitchell said. “I have dismissed it based on lack of standing, so we will not have a hearing on a temporary injunction.”

The judge’s opinion said Gietzen lacks standing because he “has suffered no cognizable injury or shown a connection between any alleged injury and the challenged conduct.”

“I believe that I have standing in that I am a citizen of Sedgwick County,” Gietzen told the judge. “I’m a voter. Whether or not I have an interest in the outcome of the election, I think that everyone, every citizen, has a right to have a fair election, and that’s not possible with the system that we have right now with ballot drop boxes.”

Gietzen offered no evidence of voting fraud or illegal ballot harvesting. He said he plans to appeal the decision if the Value Them Both Amendment is rejected by voters.

Gietzen had claimed in his lawsuit that Schwab and Caudillo had failed to “come up with a meaningful method of actually limiting ballot harvesters” in the Aug. 2 election. Voting is already underway.

State law limits ballot collection to 10. It requires anyone dropping off a ballot for someone else to sign a sworn statement attesting that they have not delivered more than 10 advance-voting ballots on behalf of other people during the election in which the ballot is being cast.

Gietzen said that without constant in-person monitoring of the ballot drop boxes and other means to ensure no one breaks the law, the sworn statement is an “ill-conceived honor system.” Without evidence, he said it allows people to skirt the law by using fictitious names such as Donald Duck, Indiana Jones or Mickey Mouse.

Gietzen said the lack of restrictions could lead to thousands of phony ballots being cast in the Aug. 2 election. He said his concerns about ballot drop boxes arose after watching the election conspiracy film “2000 Mules.” The film presents no evidence of voter fraud and instead uses misleading cell phone data and surveillance video to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump through a vast network of nonprofits that paid “mules” to stuff ballot drop boxes with phony ballots for Joe Biden.

As of Wednesday evening, 804 ballots had been deposited in Sedgwick County drop boxes, said Kevin Stamper, who was representing Caudillo.

“So if ballot harvesting and fraudulent voting is going on in violation (of state law), then they’re doing a really poor job of it,” Stamper said. “I don’t believe that the arguments (put forth by Gietzen) have any merit; they’re certainly not backed by any evidence.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 3:07 PM.