Letter: Fraud focus

To the editor:

Kansas’ secretary of state has worked tirelessly to eliminate the ten or so cases of voter fraud that show up in Kansas elections, although disenfranchising thousands of Kansans as collateral damage. His zeal to protect the sanctity of the ballot led the legislature to criminalize illegal voting, even by innocent error, and gave the secretary of state power to prosecute, which will intimidate many more voters.

Why, then, doesn’t he rush to cooperate with Beth Clarkson in her attempt to investigate the patterns of voting “irregularities” that she has identified in recent elections in Sedgwick County (Journal-World, July 18), suggesting voting-machine malfunctions or outright fraud on a serious scale? Not only has he ignored the Sedgwick County Election Office stonewalling Clarkson’s attempts to audit the election, he has ignored her summons to gain access to the telltale paper records. Is this because it may be the wrong people committing fraud?

We all know the next act.  Having demanded sweeping changes from the compliant Legislature, the secretary of state must now find and prosecute a significant number of voting fraud cases to demonstrate that it was not all grandstanding or power-grubbing or deliberate suppression of certain classes of votes. Sedgwick County appears a promising place to start.