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Wichitans Voice Concerns Over Kobach-Led Voter Fraud Commission

Nadya Faulx
/
KMUW
State Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau speaks at a press event Tuesday held in response to the meeting of the Kobach-led elections integrity commission.

About a dozen Wichita residents and elected officials gathered in Old Town Tuesday afternoon to call attention to what they say are unfair and confusing restrictions on voters in Kansas.

The nonpartisan group held a press event in response to the meeting in New Hampshire of the president’s voter fraud commission, which Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach vice-chairs. Critics have said is working to make voting harder in the U.S.

“This here, what is going on now, is just one of the latest shenanigans that our secretary has proposed to enforce on people who have already fought, died, to have the right to vote," said Kansas Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a member of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.

Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson said the focus of the commission should be on election audits rather than voter fraud.

“I am not at all happy with how Kris Kobach has handled election integrity here in Kansas, so I have some issues with their approach, but the issue itself is incredibly important, and I’m actually glad to see it getting some attention," she said.

Organizers of the event say they want to see an elections system where all eligible voters can easily register and vote.

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Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.