Update: Kobach addresses an announcement rally over the noon hour in front of the courthouse in Olathe.
Former K
Kris Kobachansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach today announced that he was running for secretary of state next year.
The announcement, long expected, came on Chris Stigall's show on KCMO this morning.
Kobach's campaign platform already is clear. He told Stigall that voter fraud has emerged as a "very real problem" in Kansas.
Fifty years ago, black Kansans were disenfranchised because of the color of their skin, Kobach said. Today, Kansans are disenfranchised when someone casts "10 fraudulent ballots.
“I want to tackle that problem.”
If elected, Kobach pledged to "clean house" in the secretary of state's office and push for voter ID legislation to make the system safer.
Other candidates interested in the office are J.R. Claeys and state Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, Kan.
Four-term incumbent Ron Thornburgh, who is running for governor, also has filed paperwork with the state ethics commission indicating that he might seek the office again.
During a 12:30 p.m. rally today in Olathe, Kobach said he wanted to accomplish four goals if elected:
1. Purge the voter rolls. Kobach said there were 119,000 people whose names don't match the addresses listed on their registrations.
2. Require a photo ID to vote. He said Sebelius has vetoed this requirement twice and that it will take a Republican governor before this becomes law.
3. Require people who register to vote to prove they are U.S. citizens by showing a passport or other official document.
4. Vigorously work to have voter fraud prosecuted. He said he would hire a full-time attorney in the secretary of state's office to investigate voter fraud and work with county attorneys across the state to bring these cases to court.
Kobach told the crowd of more than 30 supporters that the radical left was trying to take over secretary of state offices in numerous states.
He said the left was funneling money to the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now or ACORN, which has organized voter registration drives across the country.
He called the group a "criminal enterprise" because they attempt to register people who are not qualified to vote.
"We're not used to decades and decades of election fraud," Kobach said. "But it's here."
He said ACORN was operating in Kansas City, Kan., Topeka and Wichita.
Because its community organizers canvass in poor neighborhoods where many voters are expected to vote Democratic, ACORN has often been accused of partisanship.
Wasn't Kobach charged with something a few....
years ago. Someone refresh my memory.