It has been almost two years since the Legislature gave Secretary of State Kris Kobach the power to prosecute voter fraud in Kansas, and he just secured his first conviction of a former non-citizen who voted in the state. Although Victor David Garcia Bebek became a naturalized U.S. citizen two months ago, he voted twice in 2012 and once in 2014. After his office announced Bebek’s guilty plea, a triumphant Kobach immediately started attacking his political rivals: “No matter how many cases we prosecute the political left will always whine that there’s not enough cases to justify protecting our elections in this way. That’s absurd.” Kobach makes it sound as if the “political left” is ignoring the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that non-citizen voting is a rampant crisis in our state. But the record doesn’t agree with this assertion – between 1995 and 2013, there were only three documented cases of non-citizens voting in federal elections in Kansas. While Kobach argues that county prosecutors haven’t been pursuing voter fraud cases vigorously enough (one of his reasons for demanding prosecutorial authority in the first place), his single non-citizen conviction in 22 months doesn’t provide much support for that claim.
In a statement issued by the secretary of state’s office, Kobach reiterated the consequences of illegal voting: “The problem of non-citizens voting is a serious one, both in Kansas and nationally. Every time a non-citizen votes, it cancels out the vote of a United States citizen.” This is unambiguously true, but Kobach’s victory must be viewed in the context of an obsessive anti-voter fraud campaign that has canceled out far more than one vote. This is why people on the “political left” – along with other critics across the ideological continuum – are so concerned about Kobach’s fanatical preoccupation with fraudulent voting (particularly when it comes to non-citizens).
In 2011, Kansas passed the Secure and Fair Elections Act (a bill championed by Kobach), which imposed a series of the most restrictive election laws in the U.S. Over the past year, multiple federal and state lawsuits have been filed against the proof-of-citizenship requirement, and Kobach has lost in court again and again.
Full Article: Editorial: Kris Kobach’s hollow victory | The Topeka Capital-Journal.