Kansas leaders introduced felony prices Wednesday towards Joe Ceballos, the mayor of a small metropolis in rural Kansas, alleging he voted in a number of elections however is just not a US citizen.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Kansas Lawyer Common Kris Kobach, each elected Republicans, introduced they filed six prices 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 usually clear voter registration lists, often known as voter rolls.
The method consists of utilizing exterior databases to display for noncitizens, which Kobach, a longtime immigration hawk and ally of President Donald Trump, mentioned is just not 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 steadily,” Kobach mentioned, echoing the broader sentiments of Republicans who say voter fraud is a urgent situation.
Ceballos’ prices, which embody perjury and voting with out being certified, in response to 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 an extended 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 supply 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 mentioned 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 mentioned investigators had “unassailable proof” towards Ceballos.
Kobach mentioned metropolis officers, similar to mayors, are additionally required by regulation to be US residents, which the lawyer basic mentioned was “price noting” however not a felony 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 mentioned.
“On this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that belief.”
Kobach and Schwab mentioned they just lately started benefiting from a federal authorities database that helps cross-check voter rolls with immigration information that they count on will cause them to establish extra voting violations.
Ceballos’ first court docket look is Dec. 3.
