Kansas court rules for Kobach inquiry

TOPEKA, Kan. — A grand jury must be convened to investigate whether Republican gubernatorial candidate and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach intentionally failed to register voters in 2016, the Kansas Supreme Court has ruled.

The court’s one-page opinion offered no explanation behind the ruling, which addressed Kobach’s appeal of a lower court’s order to summon the grand jury, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

The high court’s ruling, released Friday, stemmed from a petition first filed in 2016 by Steven Davis, a Lawrence resident who accused Kobach of intentionally choosing not to process online voter registrations and preventing qualified residents from voting in the 2016 election. The Douglas County District Court twice rejected Davis’ petition, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to support the allegations against Kobach.

But the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that the lower court was incorrect when it said Davis needed to provide specific allegations of a crime. State law requires only general allegations. The court ordered Douglas County to summon the grand jury.

Kansas is one of six states that allow citizens to request grand juries through petitions. In Douglas County, doing so would require 860 signatures under state law. Davis, a 29-year-old Democratic candidate for Kansas’ 45th state House District, collected 910.