photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach announces his campaign for governor on Thursday, June 8, 2017 at the Thompson Barn in Lenexa, Kan.

With no fanfare, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach changed his official residence recently to his farm near Lecompton and registered to vote in Douglas County.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew confirmed that Kobach changed his voter registration on March 8. He had previously been a resident of Piper, in Wyandotte County.

Kobach’s property in Douglas County has been the subject of some controversy. In 2014, he was cited for using the property as a residence, even though he only had permission to use it as an agricultural building.

He later obtained the permits needed to occupy the building as a residence, and he now intends to build an actual home on the property.

“They do currently have slightly cramped quarters, causing most of their possessions to be stored at his parents’ house,” Kobach’s spokeswoman Samantha Poetter said in an email. “His daughters love living out in the country. They expect to break ground on their future home next week.”

Kobach has announced that he will run for governor in 2018. If elected, he would be the first state governor of Kansas elected from that area, although all of the state’s territorial governors called Lecompton home, including the last territorial governor, George M. Beebe, Dec. 17, 1860-Feb. 9, 1861.