Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach wants Americans to believe that voter fraud is such a pervasive problem that it could even explain how Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. It’s one thing to point out that the overwhelming majority of political experts disagree with his assertion; even his own expert, however, won’t back up his claim. During a trial over Kansas’ restrictive voter registration law, political scientist Jesse Richman was unable to support many of his claims as he was interrogated by two lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. Richman was testifying as an expert witness for Kobach, who has pointed to Richman’s work in order to back up his own theories about voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election.
Richman himself admitted that one of Kobach’s most controversial claims — namely, that roughly 3 million people voted illegally during the 2016 presidential election — was not supported by either his own study or those of any other scholars he is aware of.
Richman also acknowledged that his study, which concluded that “6.4 percent of noncitizens voted in 2008,” had not been reviewed by his peers and was later condemned by 200 political scientists. The Old Dominion University professor was also unable to effectively explain a number of errors in how his survey was conducted, such as it using estimates based on small-sample surveys.
Full Article: Let’s check in with Kris Kobach’s illegal voter quest – Salon.com.