Kansas leaders introduced legal costs Wednesday towards Joe Ceballos, the mayor of a small metropolis in rural Kansas, alleging he voted in a number of elections however will not be a US citizen.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Kansas Legal professional Common Kris Kobach, each elected Republicans, introduced they filed six costs in Comanche County towards Ceballos, a lawful everlasting resident from Mexico, for voting in elections in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Ceballos is the mayor of Coldwater and beforehand served as a metropolis councilman.
States are required by regulation to have mechanisms in place to frequently clear voter registration lists, often known as voter rolls.
The method consists of utilizing exterior databases to display screen for noncitizens, which Kobach, a longtime immigration hawk and ally of President Donald Trump, stated will not be error-proof.
“Noncitizen voting is an actual drawback. It’s not one thing that occurs as soon as in a decade. It’s one thing that occurs pretty regularly,” Kobach stated, echoing the broader sentiments of Republicans who say voter fraud is a urgent challenge.
Ceballos’ costs, which embrace perjury and voting with out being certified, in accordance with the criticism reviewed by Fox Information Digital, carry a most penalty of greater than 5 years in jail. Ceballos didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Kobach, who beforehand served as Kansas secretary of state, has a protracted historical past of pushing for harder immigration enforcement and stricter voter ID legal guidelines.
In 2018, he misplaced a high-profile federal lawsuit after trying to implement a state regulation that required voters to offer bodily documentation of US citizenship when registering to vote.
A court docket discovered it exceeded the mandatory necessities to verify citizenship, in violation of federal election legal guidelines.
The court docket stated on the time that the state regulation couldn’t “be justified by the scant proof of noncitizen voter fraud earlier than and after the regulation was handed.”
Kobach didn’t element how state officers got here to be taught that the mayor and former metropolis councilman is allegedly a noncitizen, however he stated investigators had “unassailable proof” towards Ceballos.
Kobach stated metropolis officers, resembling mayors, are additionally required by regulation to be US residents, which the lawyer common stated was “price noting” however not a legal offense.
Ceballos was on the poll for re-election on Election Day, however the official outcomes haven’t been licensed but.
“Largely, our system proper now’s based mostly on belief, belief that when the particular person indicators the registration or indicators the ballot books saying that he’s a certified elector or that he’s a United States citizen, that the particular person is telling the reality,” Kobach stated.
“On this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that belief.”
Kobach and Schwab stated they not too long ago started making the most of a federal authorities database that helps cross-check voter rolls with immigration information that they anticipate will make them establish extra voting violations.
Ceballos’ first court docket look is Dec. 3.
