Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: It has never been clear whether Kris Kobach understands what his job is. As Kansas’ secretary of state, a position he’s held for nearly eight years, Kobach’s main responsibility is to serve as the state’s … Continue reading
Category Archives: fraudulent fraud squad
Here is the order denying the motion to dismiss. Next step will be discovery, which should be interesting. (Press release.) … Continue reading
Frank Wilkinson for Bloomberg View: At any point in the past decade, Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer could’ve said something. When Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was engineering ways to suppress votes, and repeating false claims about voter fraud, Colyer could’ve piped … Continue reading
Oh my: The hotline announcement coincided with the discovery of 100 votes for Colyer in Thomas County near the Colorado border. Thomas County Clerk Shelly Harms confirmed that Colyer received 522 votes on election day rather than the total of … Continue reading
Amazing (not that Commissioner McCormick would think that, but that she would put that in writing). … Continue reading
CNN: Kris Kobach, the former vice-chair of President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded commission on election integrity, and Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap have engaged in a public back and forth over the issue of voter fraud, with Kobach accusing Dunlap, a … Continue reading
WaPo: One of the foremost proponents of stricter voter identification laws, Kobach, who is running in the primary Tuesday for the Republican nomination for the state’s governorship, has been undeterred since a federal judge struck down a restrictive voting law … Continue reading
Steven Rosenfeld: That overall tally means that 17 out of the 28 states that were in Crosscheck as of early 2017 have backed away, at least for now. That list of states, that, under a legal memo, agree to share … Continue reading
ProPublica: Today, thousands of commission documents were released that show aspects of the body’s inner workings. As critics have suggested, the records — a mix of memos, internal emails and reports — make clear the commission’s work was driven by … Continue reading
Dig in, folks. Update: Here is the letter Secretary Dunlap released in connection with the posting of the documents. … Continue reading
Great ProPublica/KC Star joint venture: Kobach used his work in Valley Park to attract other clients, with sometimes disastrous effects on the municipalities. The towns — some with budgets in the single-digit-millions — ran up hefty legal costs after hiring … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Interesting contrast: The candidates largely agreed that voter fraud is not a systemic issue but committed themselves to enforcing the state’s election laws. They also said they want to focus on improving the less-talked-about administrative side of the office, such … Continue reading
Popcorn time coming: Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap was notified Wednesday that he will receive, within 24 hours, documents related to a presidential commission on voting integrity he served on last year. Dunlap, one of 11 members appointed by … Continue reading
KC Star editorial. … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: Nearly six months after President Trump, citing growing litigation, dissolved his sketchy voter fraud commission, a federal judge in Washington said Wednesday that certain commission documents should be turned over to one of its commissioners, who sued last … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: Former Trump voter fraud commissioner J. Christian Adams was in a federal court in Virginia Friday to defend reports his group released in 2016 and 2017 alleging that thousands of non-citizens were illegally registered to vote … Continue reading
KMUW: A massive voter-tracking program run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — which purports to help states keep voter rolls accurate — has halted operations over concerns about its own accuracy and security. The Interstate Crosscheck system, which … Continue reading
KC Star: “While these are serious allegations, it is vitally important to understand that after two years of investigation there is no credible — and I can strike credible and just put evidence — there is no evidence that these … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: After two days of confusion — with some but not all county election officials enforcing a Kansas voting restriction struck down by a federal judge Monday — the Kansas Secretary of State’s office instructed local officials … Continue reading
KSNT: In the aftermath of a federal judge’s ruling yesterday voters may be confused about voter registration. The judge ruled it is unconstitutional for Secretary of State Kobach to make voters show proof of citizenship to register. However Secretary Kobach told … Continue reading
This is a very well done look at the first real court case testing the claims of the Fraudulent Fraud Squad, including von Spakovsky and Kobach. Enjoy. … Continue reading
Given how things went at trial (Kobach got held in contempt at one point—though had the fine paid off with a government credit card), this is no surprise. In addition to injunctive and declaratory relief, “the Court imposes sanctions responsive … Continue reading
Our is the only democracy in the world that celebrates, as clever tactics, excluding people from voting. We don't even pretend that the choice of the people should win: we accept that a candidate can win by denying the vote … Continue reading
NYT: Documents released in a lawsuit attempting to block the inclusion of a question about citizenship in the 2020 census show lobbying by anti-immigration hard-liners for the question’s inclusion, and resistance on the part of some census officials to asking … Continue reading
CJ Online: An attorney for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says the attorney fees requested by the American Civil Liberties Union for a contempt finding against Kobach are unreasonably high. In the latest filing in a case over the state’s voter registration … Continue reading
HuffPost: Nearly half of Republicans believe millions of people voted illegally in the last presidential election ― a claim that President Donald Trump has repeatedly made, even though neither he nor anyone else has produced concrete evidence to show it’s … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Democratic candidate for attorney general Josh Kaul criticized Wisconsin’s top cop Wednesday, saying he had made ludicrous comments about voter ID, had failed to test rape kits and hadn’t taken action to keep the internet moving at the … Continue reading
KC Star: Kansas lawmakers have abandoned an effort to force Secretary of State Kris Kobach to pay out of his own pocket the costs of being held in contempt of court. The decision ended a looming showdown between Kobach and … Continue reading
Urban Milwaukee reports. … Continue reading
In Breitbart interview, Kris Kobach calls the recent order holding him in contempt for failing to register voters “just ridiculous.” https://t.co/hc2W8zJGv1 — Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) April 23, 2018 Kobach's description of why he was held in contempt is really … Continue reading
KC Star: A federal judge on Wednesday found Secretary of State Kris Kobach in contempt of court in a case involving Kansas voting laws, her latest rebuke of the Republican candidate for governor. Kobach is considered a GOP frontrunner despite … Continue reading
Pema Levy for Mother Jones. … Continue reading
The Hill: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday defended President Trump’s claims about widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election and argued the administration has no evidence to back up the claims because states have refused to cooperate with a federal … Continue reading
The Fix: “They always like to say, ‘Oh, that’s a conspiracy theory!’ ” [Trump] continued. “Not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people, and it’s very hard because the state guards their records. They don’t want to see … Continue reading
Sherman Smith in the Topeka Capital-Journal: Dale Ho’s mic drop flourish with a key witness for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach made for one of the most memorable moments in a trial over the state’s voter registration law. But … Continue reading
Ellsworth-American: The whole affair began when he received a call from Kobach asking if he’d join the commission. At first, he said, he had no intention to help. But friends and colleagues advised him that he could play a regulating … Continue reading
Daniel Nachanian oped for NBC Think. … Continue reading
KC Star: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach could be facing a contempt order from a federal court after a judge on Tuesday tore into the Kansas Republican about repeatedly skirting her orders. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson chastised Kobach, … Continue reading
Bryan Lowry for the KC Star: A federal judge will decide whether thousands can vote in Kansas this fall after the conclusion of a two-week trial that saw a leading candidate for governor scolded and scrutinized. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, … Continue reading
This trial is going to go down in the history books. It is the first time the Fraudulent Fraud Squad’s spurious claims of massive voter fraud literally have been put to trial and cross examination. It is not going well … Continue reading
Lead Sunday NYT editorial. … Continue reading
Charles Pierce on the Kobach-ACLU trial. … Continue reading
CJ Online: Jesse Richman endured a blistering critique Tuesday of his estimate of 18,000 noncitizen voters in Kansas and said he couldn’t support claims by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote because more … Continue reading
TPM: The chair of the Republican Party in Chicago last year passed on allegations of voter fraud to a member of President Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission, using a top Justice Department official as intermediary, newly released emails reveal. The emails, … Continue reading
The Topeka Capital Journal reports. … Continue reading
TPM: A prominent voter fraud alarmist who had prepared a report defending Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship law admitted in testimony Friday that he did not investigate the circumstances surrounding the registrations of a handful of non-citizens that were central to his allegations. … Continue reading
That’s the subhead of this Sam Levine piece on Dale Ho’s examination of von Spakovksy yesterday. … Continue reading