Kobach Expects to Push for Tougher Voter Fraud Laws in 2nd Term

(AP) – Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says that next year he’ll revive a proposal to give his office the power to prosecute election fraud cases.

Kobach pushed the idea after taking office in 2011, but his efforts to win legislative approval of the idea fell just short of passage two years later, even though fellow Republicans control the Legislature.

Kobach won re-election this month with 59 percent of the vote.

He persuaded legislators to enact a 2012 law requiring all voters to show photo identification at the polls, and a 2013 statute requiring new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship to register.

But the secretary of state’s office can’t initiate election fraud prosecutions on its own. Such decisions are left to county or federal prosecutors.