Secretary of State Kris Kobach is planning to unveil his office’s first charges of voter fraud soon.
Lawmakers last session gave Kobach’s office the power to prosecute voter fraud. Kobach said in a recent interview that it will have to be soon, because some possible violations his office is investigating occurred during the 2010 election.
“There’s a five-year statute of limitations for bringing any prosecution, so we have to get those out the door by November. It will be the month of September and October that we bring those,” Kobach says.
Kobach expects he’ll be prosecuting cases of double voting, which the state's ballot security measures can't prevent. Kobach has argued that voter fraud has not been adequately prosecuted.
“The only real way to reduce it is to deter it and the way we deter it is prosecuting it, getting the message out that we can tell when it happens, we’ll catch you after the fact and there’s going to be a heavy fine,” Kobach says.
Some local prosecutors opposed giving Kobach’s office the power to prosecute crimes, saying they have been taking appropriate action on voter fraud cases.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom has said Kobach’s office never forwarded any cases of voter fraud to him.
