Month: August 2016

Two federal seats on ballot

Two federal seats, U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, are on the ballot on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

Incumbent Sen. Jerry Moran, 62, a conservative Republican who was born in Great Bend, Kan., and whose home is in Hays, Kan., was elected in 2010. Previously, he was a member of the U.S. House from the 1st District in 1996, serving six terms.

Moran served as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2013, and Republicans gained a majority of the Senate then.

He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas School of Law.

D.J. Smith of Osawatomie, Kan., is running against Moran in the Republican primary. Smith also ran in 2014 for the U.S. Senate against Pat Roberts.

Smith formerly served on the Osawatomie City Council.

Patrick Wiesner is the leading Democratic contender for the U.S. Senate.

Wiesner, whose home is in Lawrence, Kan., grew up on a farm near Ellis, Kan.

Wiesner holds a bachelor’s degree in business in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Fort Hays State University, a Master of Business Administration from Fort Hays State University and a law degree from the University of Kansas.

Wiesner served more than 21 years in the reserves, and retired in 2014 as a U.S. Army Reserve judge advocate, with the rank of major. In the military, he handled government contract and fiscal law. He was deployed twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan.

Wiesner had a CPA business in Hays, and then after he received his law degree, he opened a law firm in Overland Park. The law firm handles bankruptcy, tax and business law.

Two of Wiesner’s main issues, according to his campaign information, are paying off the federal government’s debt and also ending lobbyist influence in the Senate.

Monique Singh is also running for the Democratic nomination for Senate.

She is a Kansas City, Kan., resident who said she would be a “voice from the trenches,” representing poverty-stricken Americans. She added she is concerned about children and education, reducing recidivism, health and mental health issues, and senior citizens’ issues.

She is a native of Topeka, Kan., who moved here several years ago.

The U.S. Senate candidates did not attend a July 12 forum at Kansas City Kansas Community College. One candidate, Wiesner, sent a representative to speak on his behalf.

U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District

Leading candidates for the U.S. House contest are incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-3rd Dist., and Jay Sidie, a Democrat from Mission Woods.

Yoder has been elected to the 3rd District since 2011. His home is in Overland Park, Kan., and he is a native of the Yoder, Kan., area, and attended school in Hutchinson, Kan.

He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and English from the University of Kansas, anda law degree from KU. He practiced law in Olathe, Kan., and served as a state representative for eight years from Leawood and Overland Park before being elected to the 3rd District.

His goals in the U.S. House are to balance the budget, reduce the national debt and stimulate job growth.

Republican challenger Greg Goode has a military background and is running on a platform to “vote the political class out.”

Goode, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who lives in Louisburg, Kan., was at the July 12 forum. “The voters have not had a choice since 2010,” he said. “The voters deserve a choice.”

Goode said his top issue would be to “stop the insane spending.” His second top issue is pro-life, he said.

Jay Sidie, of Mission Woods, Kan., is considered by many to be the leading Democratic challenger to Yoder.

Sidie had raised the most campaign funds of the Democratic candidates as of the last reporting period.

Sidie grew up in Grand Forks, N.D., and received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business administration from the University of Minnesota, which he attended on a track scholarship.

As a student he worked at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. After graduation, he went to work as a commodity trader for Archer Daniels Midland Co., becoming vice president after five years.

He moved to this area to head the ADM office at the Kansas City Board of Trade. While working, he earned a Master of Business Administration degree. Currently, he owns a small investment firm in Mission Woods.

According to his campaign information, Sidie is in favor of balancing the budget, protecting Social Security, Wall Street reform, equal pay for women, and growing good-paying local jobs.

Sidie has the endorsement of the Kansas AFL-CIO.

Nathaniel McLaughlin, a resident of Kansas City, Kan., said at the July 12 forum that he wants to assure America remains second to none in gross national output, education, health and defense.

He wants to make sure Americans have access to affordable health care, and he wants Social Security to remain strong. He is also pro-labor.

McLaughlin, a businessman, said Social Security, programs for senior citizens, education and the military should be spared budget cuts, but all other departments should be cut 1 percent annually for eight years.

McLaughlin is a past president of the Kansas City, Kan., NAACP and the Kansas State NAACP, has served as the chairman of the Wyandotte County Black Democrats Caucus and also has been a commissioner from 2005 to 2011 of the Kansas City, Kan., Housing Authority Board.

Reggie Marselus of Lenexa, Kan., also is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

According to his campaign information, Marselus favors job creation, maintaining Social Security, health care for everyone, and easy access to high-quality education.

Marselus, a member of the IBEW, worked as a journeyman wireman for 32 years before retirement. He is a delegate to the Tri-County Labor Council. He has been active in his church many years as a church organist, Sunday school teacher and deacon.

Only two of the five candidates for U.S. House, 3rd District, Greg Goode and Nathaniel McLaughlin, attended a July 12 candidates’ forum at KCKCC.

https://wyandotteonline.com/candidates-hold-widely-varying-views-in-3rd-district-u-s-house-contest/

For more information on the candidates, visit

Home

http://www.wiesnerforsenate.com/

https://wyandotteonline.com/kck-candidate-for-u-s-senate-promises-to-be-a-voice-from-the-trenches-of-poverty/ and https://www.facebook.com/Monique-Singh-Bey-for-Senate-1014687671910923/

http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/152926/dj-smith#.V6CPUaNTFok

http://www.yoderforcongress.com/

http://goodeforcongress.com/

http://www.jay4congress.com/

http://nmclaughlinforcongress.com/

http://www.reggieforcongress.com/

Kansas voters have a choice to make: paper or electronic

Concerns stem from reports of possible tampering in 2014 election

by Jim McLean, KHI News Service

This story is part of a 2016 Kansas elections collaboration involving the KHI News Service, KCUR, KMUW, Kansas Public Radio and High Plains Public Radio. These stations will carry live coverage of primary election results Tuesday night.

Kansas doesn’t have a reputation for corruption like Chicago, where political bosses stuffed ballot boxes and sometimes raised the dead to alter the outcome of elections, or like Florida, home of the infamous hanging chad from Bush v. Gore.

But concerns about tampering appear to be on the rise, at least among Kansas Democrats, because of unusual voting patterns in the 2014 elections and persistent reports about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines.

“Apparently, they (voting machines) are not that hard to hack,” said Beth Clarkson, a Wichita State University statistician who believes the machines may have been used to alter results in some large Kansas precincts in 2014.

Clarkson, who is appealing a recent district court ruling denying her access to Sedgwick County voting records, bases her concerns on Kansas voting patterns that resemble those linked to possible fraud in several Republican presidential primary contests across the country in 2012.

Two California researchers uncovered the patterns in the presidential primary states. When Clarkson saw their report, she downloaded their data and re-tested their methods.

“I took a look at the data and I took a look at their analysis and I got the same results they did,” she said.

Convinced their methods were sound, Clarkson applied them to the 2014 U.S. Senate race in Kansas won by Pat Roberts over challenger Greg Orman. The results confirmed the same unusual voting patterns — late surges of partisan votes in large precincts that could have been generated by rigging electronic voting machines.

“Statistics never tell you what the cause is,” Clarkson said, only that there is a relationship between the numbers and certain explanations. But based on her preliminary findings, she said the 2014 voting patterns are “possibly indicative of fraud.”

Clarkson’s findings re-ignited speculation about how Republican Gov. Sam Brownback eked out a win over Paul Davis on that same night. So, as this year’s elections approached, Democrats in particular began urging supporters to use paper ballots when possible.

“It’s much easier to tamper with those electronic machines, and we suspect that there has been some of that going on,” Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said at a recent candidate forum. “So, I think if people want their vote to count, they ought to use paper.”

Confidence in machines

Miami County Clerk Janet White said concerns about electronic voting machines are overblown. She has confidence in the aging but well-maintained machines used at the county’s 13 polling places because of the security measures she has put in place.

“None of these machines are hooked to the internet, so they’re really not hackable,” White said, motioning to a group of machines set up for a poll-worker training class.

The machines and the cards used to activate and record the votes cast on them are closely monitored before, during and after each election.

“So, we really have got some safety measures in place,” she said. “Without knocking somebody over the head, I really don’t think you’re going to be able to mess with our elections.”

Renee Pfaltzgraff, of Paola, is among the volunteers that White is training to work the polls. She said she’s not concerned about the security of her vote.

“I’ve used them (the machines) for several years, and the ballots are very simple to navigate through,” Pflaltzgraff said. “You have an opportunity to change an answer if you want to change it. So, I’ve never had any issues with the machines.”

But some Kansas voters do have issues with the machines. When Topeka resident Vern McFalls read about Clarkson’s findings, his thoughts immediately went back to his experiences as a poll worker on the night of the 2014 general election.

“Something definitely went awry that night,” McFalls said, explaining that some of the voting machines at his polling place seemed to be “acting up” hours after the polls closed.

“Maybe I’m wrong, but just my gut feeling tells me something wasn’t right,” he said. “If it were left up to me, I’d never go near another electronic voting machine again. I mean, it’s just too easy (to manipulate them). It’s just too easy.”

Producing a paper trail

Organizations that monitor elections also continue to have issues with the machines, particularly models that don’t generate paper trails. The use of electronic voting machines by states, like Kansas, that don’t require post-election audits also are a concern to organizations like the Verified Voting Foundation and the Common Cause Education Fund, which in a 2012 report listed Kansas among the states least prepared to catch and address voting problems.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew refuses to criticize colleagues that continue to use electronic voting systems. But he prefers paper ballots.

“As an election official, I like the security of having that paper-based system,” Shew said. “Regardless of what happens, I have a ballot I can hand a voter, they can vote and if need be I can hand-count it if none of the (scanning) equipment works.”

He said the county’s system makes it easier for him to audit results if necessary.

“There just is a confidence in having that paper ballot, not only for the voter but for the person administering elections and for the poll workers,” Shew said. “It provides us with the ability to audit throughout the whole process.”

Voters who have concerns can request paper ballots even in counties that use electronic systems, Shew said. But supplies of paper ballots are usually limited in those counties. So, those wanting one might want to call ahead to their county election office before showing up at the polls.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/kansas-voters-have-a-choice-to-make-paper-or-electronic#sthash.DHwA7wOz.dpuf

Two candidates vie for Democratic nomination for 5th District, state Senate

In the primary election Tuesday, Aug. 2, Bill Hutton and Donald G. Terrien are running for the Kansas Senate, 5th District Democratic nomination.

Both candidates agree that education is a top issue, but they have different methods of increasing state revenues to fund schools.

The candidates appeared at a forum July 12 sponsored by Business West, neighborhood business organizations and Kansas City Kansas Community College.

The 5th District includes parts of western Wyandotte County and Leavenworth County. The incumbent is Republican State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald. About 60 percent of the district is in Leavenworth County and 40 percent in Wyandotte County.

Hutton, of Basehor, Kan., has been an attorney for 36 years in Kansas City, Kan., and a part-time municipal judge in Bonner Springs for 14 years. He also was a municipal judge in Kansas City, Kan., for three years.

“I’m running for the state Senate because of the failed policies of Gov. Brownback, and the votes and the actions of his ardent supporter, the current one-term incumbent in Senate District 5,” Hutton said.

He said he favors local control over issues ranging from property taxes to gun control, and he opposes unfunded mandates from the state. He supports equitable funding of the public schools, and he does not support a constitutional amendment that would limit the powers of the Kansas Supreme Court, he said.

Terrien, 41, of Lansing, Kan., said he has been a member of the working class for 20 years. He pays taxes every year, and he thinks it’s ridiculous some of the things he’s seen that happen in the state. He said education is an important issue.

“I’ve had enough so I figured I would try to do something about it,” Terrien said.

He said that legalizing marijuana could produce more tax revenues that could be used for education. Terrien also is a supporter of gun rights, and believes the sale of cigarettes should be illegal.

Hutton said projects that received sales tax revenue bonds here paid significantly more in property taxes than had been paid previously. With the payoff of the STAR bonds on Village West, more sales tax revenues are coming into the community.

“What we’re seeing is a major increase in the funds from sales tax that will go directly to Wyandotte County, and to the community college and to the school district to reduce property taxes,” he said.

Terrien said he thinks the property tax is outrageous currently the way it is now.

“There’s some states that have legalized marijuana, with all kinds of tax revenue,” Terrien said. He said he thinks Kansas should legalize marijuana.

“In order to increase funding for schools, we’ve got to do something drastic,” Terrien said.

On the issue of the property tax lid, Hutton said the state Legislature always says the federal government shouldn’t tell the state government what to do, and by the same token, the state shouldn’t tell local governments what to do. The local elected officials in Wyandotte County should be able to determine what appropriate taxes are, he said. Voters can vote them out of office if they don’t agree with the decision, but Hutton doesn’t believe the state should impose a property tax lid on local governments.

“They raised the sales tax and didn’t ask the local population about that,” Hutton said. “We now have the highest overall sales tax rate in the country.”

Hutton said he is not in favor of legalizing marijuana. If there are medical exceptions under medical supervision, that’s possible, but it is not a quick fix for the budget, and he doesn’t think that’s how Kansas should support its schools.

On the question of the Dream Act, Hutton said he supports it. The students who are affected are those who have been here since they were small children and have graduated from high schools. He said they need to have the same opportunities as other residents to get a higher education. He said he would support their ability to get student loans the same as any other resident of Kansas, as they should be on the same basis as other citizens.

Kansas needs to revisit its corporate tax structure, as well as revisit the issue when the state reduced its major sources of revenue from three to two, he said.

Terrien said if there isn’t money to support the Dream Act students, there’s nothing they can do. “We can’t just give out money to everybody and expect the budget to be perfect, because it’s just not going to happen,” he said. Since the students have lived here so long, they should qualify for the same grants that everyone else receives, he said.

On the question of increasing the amount of the slots revenue that The Woodlands would be able to keep, which was in a bill proposed by Sen. Fitzgerald, Hutton said any change to the 2008 law would require close scrutiny. He said with this bill Sen. Fitzgerald was not looking out for the best interests of the citizens of Wyandotte County, of the three cities in Wyandotte County, nor of all the school districts in Wyandotte County.

Hutton said he is in favor of The Woodlands reopening as long as it is a fair and level playing field with other casinos that are already in Kansas City, Kan.

Terrien said his top issue is education. He said some of the school districts are falling behind and some school programs have been cut.

“If you do something like legalize marijuana, it’s going to bring in so much tax revenue that some of these programs can open up right away, and some of these falling behind schools can actually get more funding to bring them up to par,” Terrien said.

Hutton said school funding going forward was the top issue. “The Legislature, because the Kansas Supreme Court forced them to, came up with a stop-gap solution for the year 2016,” Hutton said. “That does not deal with inequities we face in 2017, where our poorer districts do not receive the same funds as our richer districts because there are other funds quite frankly available in some of the richer districts in Kansas.”

More than 50 percent of the Kansas budget goes toward education, he said. “Going forward, it must be fair and equitable for all students,” he said, “K-12, and by the same token, we have to look at the cost for higher education, especially the community college level.”

Hutton has been endorsed by the political action committee of the KNEA, Mainstream Coalition, Tri-County Labor Council and Kansas Families for Education.

“My job is to listen to my constituents and do everything I can to make sure their needs and wants are addressed,” he said.

To view the candidate forum online, visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMfeRPiOepX3iQS-Y5OCca80njs3sop8W.

The forum is being shown on KCKCC’s cable television station. To see a schedule, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/candidate-forum-to-be-shown-on-kckcc-cable-channel-2/.

To see Terrien’s responses to the Women for Kansas questionnaire, visit http://womenforkansas.org/donald-terrien/.

To see Hutton’s responses to the Women for Kansas questionnaire, visit http://womenforkansas.org/bill-hutton/.