Topeka ? Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday that his office would “begin immediately” to prepare election fraud prosecutions if Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signs a bill giving him the power to prosecute.

Kobach has sought prosecutorial authority on such cases since taking office in 2011 and could be close to receiving it after the House approved the bill 67-55, sending it to the governor. The secretary of state is currently Kansas’ chief elections official, but must refer cases to county and federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges.

He told The Associated Press that his office would likely launch its first prosecutions in July or August.

“Once the authority is official, we will begin immediately to prepare cases for prosecution,” Kobach told The Associated Press. “You may not see a case filed, but we will already have the wheels in motion.”

Brownback’s spokeswoman Eileen Hawley declined to comment on whether the governor would sign the bill and said he would review the measure carefully.

Kobach is the architect of state laws that require all voters to show photo identification at the polls and new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship when registering. He claims his initiatives have reduced election fraud, but his critics argue the fraud was limited to a relative handful of potential cases each election cycle.

Much of the debate over on the House floor over the bill centered around Kobach personally, who hosts a weekly political talk radio show and has been outspoken in his conservative views. Democratic Rep. Jim Ward from Wichita called Kobach “excessively partisan” and said he was concerned that his future prosecutions would be tinged with politics.

Critics of the bill have also expressed worry that Kobach might bring criminal charges against people that county and district prosecutors had chosen not to pursue because they did not break the law intentionally.

But, Kobach dismissed the idea that he would wield the new powers for partisan gains and said that his opponents have mischaracterized election crimes as commonly being mistakes made by elderly voters.

The secretary of state’s office would look at older election violations first, Kobach said, in order to be able to take the cases to court before the statute of limitations runs out and evidence like ballots are routinely destroyed. However, he said he is especially interested in looking at the 2014 races.

There were “almost 100” cases of double-voting in that election cycle, Kobach claimed, saying he believed that “the great amount of attention on the governor’s race may have encouraged that.”

The bill would also stiffen penalties for an array of election crimes and would allow organizations to reward voters with products worth less than $3 for voting.

All four House members from Lawrence — Republican Rep. Tom Sloan and Democratic Reps. Barbara Ballard, Boog Highberger and John Wilson — voted against the bill.

SB34 roll call

Yea – (67):

Anthimides, Barker, Barton, Billinger, Boldra, Bradford, Bruchman, Brunk, Campbell, B. Carpenter, W. Carpenter, Claeys, Corbet, Couture-Lovelady, DeGraaf, Dove, Esau, Estes, Francis, Garber, Goico, Gonzalez, Grosserode, Hawkins, Hedke, Hemsley, Highland, Hildabrand, Hoffman, Houser, Huebert, Hutchins, Hutton, Johnson, D. Jones, K. Jones, Kahrs, Kelley, Kiegerl, Kleeb, Lunn, Macheers, Mason, Mast, McPherson, Merrick, O’Brien, Osterman, Patton, Pauls, Peck, Powell, Read, Rhoades, Rubin, Ryckman, Ryckman, Sr., Scapa, Schwab, Seiwert, Suellentrop, Sutton, Thimesch, Todd, Vickrey, Whitmer, Williams

Nay – (55):

Alcala, Alford, Ballard, Becker, Bollier, Bridges, Burroughs, Carlin, Carmichael, Clark, Clayton, Concannon, Curtis, Davis, Dierks, Doll, Edmonds, Ewy, Finch, Finney, Frownfelter, Gallagher, Henry, Hibbard, Highberger, Hill, Hineman, Houston, Jennings, Kelly, Kuether, Lane, Lewis, Lusk, Lusker, Moxley, Ousley, Phillips, Proehl, Rooker, Ruiz, Sawyer, Schroeder, Sloan, Smith, Swanson, Thompson, Tietze, Trimmer, Victors, Ward, Waymaster, Whipple, Wilson, Wolfe Moore

Absent and Not Voting – (3):

Henderson, Schwartz, Winn