Category: Election 2022

Kansas court says the secretary of state violated open records law and made it hard to get documents

by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, KCUR and Kansas News Service

The Republican secretary of state asked a private company to shut off a software function that makes it easy to retrieve certain public information.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab broke state law by taking action to prevent provisional ballot information from becoming public, the state’s second-highest court ruled on Friday.

The judges said that Schwab, a Republican, told a private company in 2020 to shut off a software feature that gave his office easy access to provisional ballot data and which, by extension, allowed the public to request the information.

So the company — which stores the Kansas statewide voter registration database — turned off the function at his request.

A three-judge panel unanimously concluded that the Kansas Open Records Act, or KORA, doesn’t allow Schwab to do that.

“That action — choosing to conceal rather than reveal public records — violates KORA,” Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Hill wrote.

A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said Friday that staff were reviewing the court ruling. The office has 30 days to appeal.

The ruling defends the public’s right to access government records, said Steve Leben, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and former judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals for 13 years.

“It’s definitely good news for the public,” Leben said, because it upholds what the Legislature made clear in its open records law. “(The Legislature) said directly in the open records act, that act is to be liberally construed to promote openness of public records.”

The backstory to Friday’s ruling starts in 2019.

That’s when Davis Hammet, founder of the Kansas civic engagement group Loud Light, requested provisional ballot information from the state.

His group wanted to know who had cast provisional ballots in the 2018 general election. Loud Light uses provisional ballot information to contact voters and let them know what steps they need to take to make sure that their vote ultimately gets counted.

Voters have to cast provisional ballots in certain situations. For example, if they have moved to a new address but forgot to report the address change to the county clerk, then election workers are unable to verify at the polling site whether the person is a valid voter. So the voter gets to cast a provisional ballot.

Voters who cast provisional ballots may need to take additional steps in order for their vote to count. For example, they may need to show a valid government-issued ID card.

The secretary of state’s office denied Hammet the provisional ballot records. Hammet sued and a district court agreed that the records should be public and ordered Schwab to release them.

So Schwab’s office handed over the records.

But in August 2020, Schwab asked the private company that stores the records to switch off the software function that gives his office easy access to the data.

The next time Hammet asked for updated provisional ballot information, Schwab’s office told him it didn’t have access to the records anymore. It suggested Hammet should instead ask each of the state’s 105 counties individually to give him their provisional ballot information.

Schwab’s office said it couldn’t produce the information centrally anymore unless Hammet agreed to pay more than $500 to have a software expert spend three hours accessing the information through a more complicated process.

So Hammet tried to get the records by contacting all 105 counties, but most counties wouldn’t comply.

Hammet sued Schwab again.

Now the Kansas Court of Appeals rules Schwab violated the Kansas Open Records Act by instructing the private company to shut off the function that makes it easy for his office to view the provisional ballot information, and then telling Hammet he would now need to pay hundreds of dollars for information that used to be free.

“The secretary of state here directed his computer software vendor to turn off a computer report feature,” the court concluded. “By turning off the report capability, the secretary denied reasonable public access to that public record and the information within it.”

Hammet said Friday’s ruling “brings the Kansas open records law into the digital age.”

“It says, if you want to use a private data vendor to store records, that’s fine, but the people of Kansas still have a right to see those records,” Hammet said. “You can’t hide behind how you store the records to deny the people of Kansas … from looking at these things and making sure that the government is operating for the public good.”

Hammet first requested provisional ballot records when the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary between Jeff Colyer and Kris Kobach came down to a narrow margin of victory and Johnson County had tossed out hundreds of ballots.

He says his persistent research into why some don’t get counted and pressure on officials to release public records that shed light on the reasons, have pressed counties and the state to improve.

In 2019, the Kansas Legislature changed state law to say local election officials must inform voters if they plan to toss out their ballots because they believe the voters’ signatures don’t match the signatures on file. This gives the voter the opportunity to prove their ballot was valid.

Schwab’s office has 30 days to appeal Friday’s decision to the Kansas Supreme Court. Otherwise, a district judge will order his agency to have the private vendor restore easy access to provisional ballot data, and then give Hammet the information.

Leben said Friday’s ruling is significant because court rulings on open records law aren’t frequent, and some aspects of how open records law applies in the real world remain murky.

“One of the situations in which the application of the open records act is unclear,” he said, “is the large amount of information that government stores on computers. And this case is significant because it involves a directive to make information on the computer easily accessible.”

At least, he said, the ruling applies to situations where the government takes action to make easily accessed database information harder to retrieve.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @celia_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-07-22/kansas-court-says-the-secretary-of-state-violated-open-records-law-and-made-it-hard-to-get-documents

33rd District attracts three Democratic candidates

With Rep. Tom Burroughs not running for re-election to the 33rd District, Kansas House, the primary has attracted five candidates, including three Democrats.

Burroughs served in the Legislature for 26 years, including a role as minority leader in 2015.

Three Democrats and two Republicans now are running for their party’s nominations in the Aug. 2 primary.

Taylor R. Dean, Bill Hutton and Mathew Reinhold are running for the Democratic nomination.

Clifton Boje and Mike Thompson are running for the Republican nomination.

Early voting starts Saturday in person in Wyandotte County. For details on early voting, see https://wyandotteonline.com/early-voting-in-person-starts-saturday/.

Taylor Dean

Taylor Dean is a Turner resident and union laborer who supports a minimum wage of $15 an hour, improved working conditions, legalizing cannabis and expanding Medicaid, he said.

“You hardly ever hear of too many politicians at the national or state level who really care about appealing to workers and prioritizing the policies advocated by the labor movement, and I wanted to bring those ideas into the public discourse,” Dean said.

Dean, 28, is a community activist and member of the Wyandotte County Young Democrats. From Junction City, Kansas, he has a degree from Kansas State University. His bachelor’s degree is in history with a minor in political science.

He moved to the Kansas City area in 2018 to work on the Proposition A campaign in Missouri, and he said he discovered that Wyandotte County was the place in the metropolitan area that most appealed to him. He said he had been involved with campaigns before, but never realized the amount of work that takes place.

Dean originally filed for the 37th District this spring, but redistricting lines later were drawn that placed him in the 33rd District. His home was one block away from the new redistricting line. He then decided to refile for the 33rd District after hearing that Rep. Burroughs would retire.

Dean is an eight-year member of Laborers Local 1290, and in his free time he likes to volunteer at KC Farm School on Gibbs Road and also is active in his union.

Another issue Dean would like to work on is local control, to get more home rule authority for local communities in the state, he said.

For more information, see https://www.taylordeanforkansas.com/.

Bill Hutton

Bill Hutton, Kansas City, Kansas, is an attorney who has served as the municipal court judge for Bonner Springs since 2003. He also served as municipal court judge in Kansas City, Kansas, from 1996 to 1999, and as a hearing officer for the Kansas City, Kansas, Housing Authority since 2018.

Hutton, 67, attended Washington High School and has degrees from Kansas City Kansas Community College and the University of Kansas, where he received a bachelor’s degree and law degree.

Hutton cited Burroughs’ retirement as a reason for running. “I felt my community-wide experience and interest and involvement would be an asset to the state legislature,” he stated in a questionnaire for the Wyandotte Daily.

Hutton’s three top issues are Medicaid expansion, a push for a statewide vote on the Medicaid issue in 2023; elimination of the sales tax on food, fast-tracked to eliminate it as early as 2023; and full funding of the public schools, supporting legislation to encompass special education, school safety and technology in the upcoming session.

If elected, Hutton stated he would seek to forge alliances across the aisle in the Legislature, working with Democrats and Republicans alike on common goals.

Hutton is active in the Wyandotte County Historical Society, Downtown Shareholders of KCK, Wyandotte County YMCA Advisory Board, Union Station volunteer, SMID Board and Wyandotte County Bar Association.

Hutton has been endorsed by the Kansas National Education Association, the Tri-County Labor Council, Firefighters Local 64, the Greater Kansas City Building and Trades Council, the Kansas Contractors Association and KC BizPAC.

Hutton previously ran for the state Senate in 2016, in a district that was 60 percent Leavenworth County and 40 percent Wyandotte County, losing in the general election by less than 1 percent of the vote.

For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/BillHutton33rd.

Mathew Reinhold

Mathew Reinhold said he is running on a working class platform of utility reform, trying to end the state ban on rent control for local municipalities, and end the state ban on local wage reform. He is in favor of a $15 minimum wage. He also favors rebuilding the local ad valorem tax relief fund to get tax relief to people.

He said he has seen friends and coworkers working multiple jobs but not able to keep their heads above the water. The Legislature needs to focus more on bread-and-butter issues, he said.

Reinhold, 24, is seeking office for the first time. His current occupation is cook. He said he decided to run just in the past six months, when it seemed like times were harder and politicians were out of touch with that reality.

He was raised in the Leavenworth area and spent the last three years of high school at Lansing High School, he said. He studied linguistics at the University of Kansas, where he finished coursework but has not yet received his degree, he said.

Reinhold said if elected, he wants to be a very visible member of the community, attending events and local meetings, and be accessible.

He said he wanted to hold town hall meetings and take the input back to Topeka. He added he would like to actively fight for his platform in the Legislature.

For more information, see https://mathewreinhold2022.wixsite.com/website.

A story about the Republican candidates for the 33rd District is planned next week. Thompson is a Bonner Springs councilman, and is not the former weatherman by the same name who is serving in the Senate. Boje is the founder of Acorn Performing Arts.

To contact Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].

Early voting in person starts Saturday

Early voting in person starts Saturday, July 23, in Wyandotte County.

Registered voters who want to cast a ballot in person in advance of primary Election Day may vote starting Saturday, July 23, at four locations in Wyandotte County, according to Election Commissioner Michael Abbott.

A new location was added recently, the Kane Community Center, 3130 N. 122nd, to help with early voting, he said.

Other early voting locations include the Wyandotte County Election Office, 850 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas; the Joe Amayo-Argentine Community Center, 2810 Metropolitan Ave., Kansas City, Kansas; and Eisenhower Recreation Center, 2901 N. 72nd St., Kansas City, Kansas.

All of the early voting locations are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 23. They also are open Monday through Friday, and next Saturday, July 31. For hours, see www.wycovotes.org.

Abbott said the new early voting location at the Kane Community Center will allow voters who live on the west side a closer location for early voting.

Wyandotte County recently has seen an influx of about 1,000 new registered voters since June 24, when the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Abbott said. Kansas has a constitutional amendment on the ballot that states there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion and the Legislature has the right to pass laws to regulate abortion.

The day after the announcement of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Wyandotte County had about 150 new voting applications, and since then until the registration deadline, it was getting 100 or 150 new applications a day, he said. Normally, the election office receives around 20 to 30 new applications a day before an election, he added.

He looked at the numbers after they had about 300 new applications, and around 150 of them were unaffiliated voters, he said, with the other half made up mostly of Democrats, some Republicans and nine or 10 Libertarians.

There were also some duplicate requests, with people trying to make sure they were eligible to vote, he added. Voters who want to check to see if they are registered to vote may either call the election office at 913-573-8500 or visit Voter View online at the Kansas secretary of state’s office, https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/voterview.

The Voter View website also offers voters a chance to see a sample ballot, with the candidates on their ballot, the state representative district candidates and the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment.

Besides early voting in person, voters may choose to have an advance ballot mailed to them.

According to the election office, the last day to submit an application for an advance voting ballot by mail is Tuesday, July 26. The applications are online at the election office website, https://www.wycovotes.org/news/2022/6/22/qdaro2zj58i3154k66exwmuoau5vcz. Voters should return a mail ballot to any early voting location or Election Day polling place during voting hours, or any mail ballot drop box location by 7 p.m. Aug. 2. They also may be mailed back to the Election Office.

There are three drop box locations for mail ballots this year, Abbott said. These include one at the Election Office at 850 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas; one at Edwardsville City Hall, 690 S. 4th St., Edwardsville; and one at the West Wyandotte Library, 1737 N. 82nd St., Kansas City, Kansas.

Recently, the Election Office added its own cameras to the drop box locations, he said. While the drop boxes have always had camera surveillance, previously they had piggybacked on the network already there, but had to have special permission to do so, Abbott said. With their own camera system, the Election Office is able to look at the mail drop boxes around the clock, he said.

One mail drop ballot box was eliminated from the former Bonner Springs City Hall location, after there wasn’t an agreement about the cameras, and another one was eliminated at Kansas City, Kansas, City Hall because it was not used very much, he said.


Those using the drop boxes need to put the ballot in the boxes before 7 p.m. on election night, Aug. 2, to count.

Those voters who place their advance ballots in the U.S. mail need to have them postmarked on or before Election Day, Aug. 2. The mailed ballots have to be received by the Election Office up to the Friday after the election, he said.

Those voters who think they are a little late but are sending their ballots through the mail before the Aug. 2 deadline should have the post office postmark it by Aug. 2, and it will be counted up to the Friday after the election, he said.

Voting on Election Day, Aug. 2, is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at assigned polling places.

Those who call the Election Office at 913-573-8500 or who visit the VoterView website at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/voterview can find out where their polling place is. The Election Office has mailed cards to voters telling them their polling places.

Polling places also are listed at a website, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56606b47e4b0b9403ad6ff96/t/62d1b4424b9d63344a67fe40/1657910339110/PR2022_Voting_Locations.pdf. Voters are assigned to one of the polling places on Election Day.

More details about early voting locations, their hours and days open, as well as about mail ballots and voting on Election Day, are at wycovotes.org.