Election security bills target voter rolls, ballot counting and campaign spending
Proposals would check registrations against federal immigration database, mandate hand-counted audits
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would tighten election procedures on multiple fronts, continuing a conservative push on election security that has defined recent legislative sessions.
House Bill 2640, introduced by the Elections Committee, would require the secretary of state to periodically compare the state's voter registration rolls against the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as SAVE, which is used to verify immigration status. The secretary would be required to report annually to the Legislature on the results. The bill reflects ongoing Republican concerns about noncitizen voting, though studies have consistently found such cases to be exceedingly rare.
Rep. Samantha Poetter Parshall, R-Paola, introduced HB 2659, which would require all election audits and recounts to be conducted using hand counts of paper ballots rather than machine tabulation., which would require all election audits and recounts to be conducted using hand counts of paper ballots rather than machine tabulation. The measure responds to distrust of electronic voting equipment that has persisted among some conservatives since the 2020 presidential election. On the campaign finance side, the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee introduced SB 451, which would require campaign treasurers to disclose the specific products and services provided by vendors when campaigns pay advertising agencies, public relations firms or political consultants — closing what sponsors view as a transparency gap that allows campaigns to obscure how money is actually spent.
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