Secretary of State Kris Kobach said a researcher wanting to check the accuracy of voting machines from the November election missed her opportunity to do so before the votes were sealed. For the first time, Kobach commented Friday on a lawsuit, in which he is a defendant, involving election results in Sedgwick County. Kobach was added as a defendant Wednesday to a lawsuit brought in the Sedgwick County District Court by Beth Clarkson, the chief statistician for the National Institute for Aviation Research, who is seeking to study the accuracy of reported vote tallies in Sedgwick County. She emphasized that this activity is independent from her duties at the institute.
Clarkson, who is representing herself, wants to study the paper records from Sedgwick County’s electronic voting machines. She is suing Kobach and Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman for access to those records.
“When you vote in Sedgwick County, there’s a paper record that records every button you push. … I want to look at those and see are those matching up to the totals being reported,” Clarkson said Friday.
Kobach said he has yet to receive a copy of Clarkson’s complaint and so he could not comment on the specific claims in the suit. He did, however, offer a more general response about Clarkson’s desire to analyze voting results.