Johnson County Sheriff’s Office calls post on ballot measure a ‘mistake.’ But then posts again.
This story was updated to reflect that the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office made additional posts about the amendment after deleting its original message.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said a pair of posts on social media sites spreading false information about a constitutional amendment on the November ballot was a mistake. But the office then doubled down with additional misleading posts that appear intended to sway voters on the ballot question.
Two constitutional amendments are on midterm election ballots for all Kansans. One would add language to the state’s founding document requiring that sheriffs across the state be elected.
Currently 104 of 105 sheriffs in Kansas are elected, Riley County has a consolidated law enforcement agency led by an appointed official. The amendment allows Riley County to keep its system but bars the rest of the state from eliminating their sheriff’s office or changing it to an appointed office.
However, in a pair of posts on Twitter and Facebook, the Johnson County Sheriff’s office misrepresented that reality.
“YES on Amendment 2 would preserve your right to elect your local sheriff,” the identical posts said. “NO on amendment 2 would take away your right to elect your local sheriff.”
No constitutional right to elect a sheriff exists in Kansas. The amendment would serve to establish that right. It would also amend the processes for removing a sheriff from office to place that power solely in the hands of the state attorney general, not the local district attorney.
If the amendment fails, counties would not have to do away with elected sheriffs. It would just maintain the status quo, which leaves it up to each county to decide the process for electing or appointing a sheriff.
The tweet was deleted within two hours, but it was then replaced by a second tweet that, yet again, asserted a yes vote would preserve a right to elect local sheriffs. The new tweet is nearly identical but omits the sentence referencing the meaning of a “no” vote.
Meanwhile, the agency edited its Facebook post to delete the sentence about “no” votes. All versions of the message appear intended to steer voters toward voting in support of the ballot measure.
“It’s a blatant lie. It’s disinformation that’s being spread via an official vehicle of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office that has been sworn to protect and serve us,” said Michael Poppa, executive director of the Kansas Mainstream Coalition. “Obviously, a yes vote would benefit Sheriff Hayden and I do expect to hear misinformation coming from him but not the entire office.”
The social media posts backlash against Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden, who has come under fire for his decision to use his office to investigate unfounded claims of voter fraud in Johnson County.
However, Shelby Colburn, the public information officer for the sheriff’s office, said in an email that she had written the tweet and the mistake was flagged to her by Hayden.
“The Sheriff brought it to my attention so we took it down. I didn’t want to cause confusion. It was my mistake alone,” Colburn said.
Colburn defended the newer versions of the post saying in an email that she was referencing the first sentence of the explanatory statement that appears with the amendment on the ballot.
“This amendment would preserve the right of citizens of each county that elected a county sheriff as of January 11, 2022, to continue electing the county sheriff,” the ballot measure’s explanatory statement, which was crafted by the GOP-controlled Legislature, states.
State Rep. Rui Xu, a Westwood Democrat, said the tweet crossed a line in misleading voters rather than informing.
“The constitutional amendment is a political issue and the sheriff’s office should not be used for political issues, they should protect and serve,” Xu said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas said the posts were inappropriate for a government agency.
“So fyi: while government departments can legally distribute information on ballot questions, that information needs to be factual,” the ACLU said in a tweet responding to the sheriff’s office. “This is a patently false representation of the amendment in question.”
Hayden has promoted the amendment while making rounds to conservative groups in Johnson County. The conservative sheriff has indulged unfounded claims of election fraud and tampering in Johnson County elections since 2020. He explained his process to a group of “constitutional sheriffs” in Las Vegas over the summer.
Hayden was first elected sheriff in 2016.
Sandy Horton, executive director of the Kansas Sheriffs’ Association, told The Star last month that the amendment was driven by a realization that the office of the sheriff was not protected in the constitution as it does in other states.
The work to change the constitution in the Legislature started after the Johnson County Charter Commission briefly considered moving the Johnson County sheriff an appointed position. But Horton said the work in Johnson County wasn’t the motivating factor.
“If you’re appointed you answer to those that appoint you and that’s not what we feel like the sheriff is all about,” Horton said.
This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 2:19 PM.
