TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas’ most populous county has rejected demands from the local sheriff and the state’s attorney general to keep old ballots and records longer than legally allowed, shredding material sought for an election fraud investigation that has not yet resulted in criminal charges. persecution has resulted.
Johnson County in the Kansas City area issued a statement Thursday saying its elections office destroyed ballots and other records from 2019, 2020 and 2021 on Wednesday, under the direction of the secretary of state, the top elections official in Kansas. State law directed local election officials to shred such materials by the fall of 2022, but the Johnson County elections office held off on doing so because of an investigation the local sheriff, Calvin Hayden, launched in the fall of 2021.
Hayden, a Republican, has questioned the integrity of the 2020 election even though there is no credible evidence of significant problems and none statewide. In the summer of 2022, he also participated in a conference for a group that promotes the dubious theory that sheriffs have virtually unchecked power in their counties.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent the county a letter in December telling it to keep the data. He said public confidence in the election would be promoted if Hayden were allowed to complete his investigation and that this would be “in the interests of justice.” Kobach, also a Republican, was an early supporter of former President Donald Trump, who for years described election fraud as a serious problem. Kobach was also Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2018.
But the county’s brief statement said the elections office did the required destruction in the presence of a bipartisan team of observers and “in accordance with Kansas statute.” Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office said in a statement that there is no legal bar to destroying the materials.
“All 105 Kansas counties are now in compliance with state law regarding the retention and destruction of ballots,” the statement said. “Compliance with the law has always been a priority for the Office of the Secretary of State.”
Schwab is also a Republican, but he has strongly defended the integrity of Kansas’ elections and has drawn criticism from lawmakers and others who have embraced baseless election conspiracy theories.
Hayden has said he received dozens of tips about possible irregularities starting in the fall of 2021, and his office said in December that the investigation was still ongoing. He had no immediate comment Thursday, although his office said he planned to respond.
Kobach’s office also did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Hayden is elected independently of the county commission. Under Kansas law, the secretary of state appoints elections commissioners in each of the state’s four most populous counties, and Schwab appointed Fred Sherman as Johnson County elections commissioner.
Andy Hyland, a spokesman for the county, said it had not heard about the old ballots and records from Hayden or Kobach after December.
Kansas law requires election officials to destroy ballots for local elections after six months unless a result is still disputed. Ballots in state and national elections must be destroyed after 22 months. Under these rules, all 2020 and 2021 ballots were to be destroyed beginning in September 2022.
But baseless conspiracy theories have circulated widely among Republicans since the 2020 election and have prompted the GOP-controlled state legislature to tighten election laws in the name of restoring public trust.
Trump also continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, and Hayden has said he began to question the previously solid Republican election when Trump lost there. The county’s politics have become more Democratic over time — in part because of some suburban voters’ distaste for Trump.
While secretary of state, Kobach was vice chairman of a short-lived Trump presidential commission on election fraud. He also supported strict voter identification laws, one of which required new voters to show paperwork proving their U.S. citizenship upon registration. It was rejected by the federal courts.