British paper says 3 men responsible for Trump pushing voter fraud. Kobach is one
President Donald Trump continues to warn about potential voter fraud, and British newspaper The Guardian says that wouldn’t be happening if not for a former Kansas official.
Kris Kobach, Kansas’ secretary of state from 2011-19, is mentioned along with attorneys Hans von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams as those who have used their positions to “peddle the myth that American elections are vulnerable to fraud.” Without them, the paper concludes, “this dangerous moment in U.S. democracy would not be possible.”
The article recounts some of Kobach’s high-profile ventures, including “Interstate Crosscheck,” an attempt to identify people who have registered to vote in multiple states.
A subsequent study The Guardian cites found that more than 99% of the people the system had flagged for potential voter fraud were, in fact, distinct voters.
Kobach pushed for a proof-of-citizenship law for those trying to register to vote. It was signed by former Gov. Sam Brownback in 2011, and labeled by The Guardian as “one of the most severe restrictions in the country” before it was struck down in 2018.
“By weaponizing a position, secretary of state, that is historically meant to be bureaucratic and non-partisan, Kobach paved the way for future secretaries of state, like Georgia’s Brian Kemp, to make it more difficult to vote,” The Guardian’s Sam Levine and Spenser Mestel wrote.
The article also mentions Kobach’s opinion piece for right-wing publication Breitbart in 2017, which claimed there was proof that New Hampshire’s elections had been swung because of voter fraud. The state’s top election official reprimanded Kobach, saying there was no such proof.
“It’s the same thing over and over and over — say it, say it, say it — and push it out there,” Lorraine Minnite, a professor at Rutgers University-Camden who studies voter fraud, told The Guardian. “It functions just like propaganda.”
Kobach, The Guardian said, did not respond to questions.
Trump appointed Kobach vice chair of the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity in 2017. The commission was disbanded in 2018, after finding no evidence to support widespread voter-fraud allegations.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 11:55 AM.
