by Stephen Koranda, Kansas News Service
The Kansas Court of Appeals said Friday that a grand jury investigation of Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office should go forward. The request was brought by a Lawrence man running for the Kansas House, Steven Davis.
He followed a rarely used Kansas law that allows citizens to call grand juries by collecting signatures.
Davis wants to know whether Kobach’s office mishandled voter registrations and whether any crimes were committed.
Davis said he’s heard, anecdotally, that people who registered online didn’t have their registrations completed and couldn’t vote. He suspects the office may have improperly handled registrations, which is why he pursued the investigation.
“As a private citizen, I don’t have any ability to do that on my own,” he said. “That’s why I think this grand jury process is important, because they have the power to do that investigation and I don’t.”
However, Davis said he’s not assuming the grand jury will uncover evidence of crimes and issue indictments.
“First of all, I would like to make sure the system works going forward,” he said. “I do think the evidence is out there.”
A lower court previously denied his request for a grand jury, but the appeals court overturned that decision.
Kobach said in 2017 that a website glitch prevented some Kansans from registering to vote online.
The Court of Appeals ruling isn’t a finding that any crimes were committed. The court only said a grand jury should be convened in Douglas County to investigate.
The grand jury could start meeting in around three months, Davis said.
Only a half dozen states allow citizens to call grand juries.
A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said Kobach wants to study the opinion before commenting. In the past, his office has said any allegations of mishandling voter registrations are “nonsense.”
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post.
See more at http://kcur.org/post/court-oks-citizens-grand-jury-probe-kobach-voter-registration.