Gov. Laura Kelly's administration stonewalls new transparency requests about her actions in 2020 with thousands of voter registration forms
Kansas Open Records Act complaints filed last month against two state agencies
Four years ago, a Sept. 2020 press release by Demos, a left-wing public policy advocacy nonprofit, admitted the Kelly administration sent a total of 277,767 voter registration forms to public assistance clients in Kansas before the Nov. 2020 election.
The press release revealed the Kansas Department of Children and Families (DCF) sent 150,512 voter registration mailings, while the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) sent another 127,255.
How can a progressive nonprofit release such information in a press release four years ago when these state agencies are still stonewalling Kansas Open Records Act requests for information about those mailings?
Apparently, 277,000 mailings can happen without any documentation about approvals, process, cost or timeliness?
Some information was obtained about these mailings in 2022, but additional open records requests to KDHE and DCF for information initiated on Feb. 29 have been largely ignored.
Complaints were filed two weeks ago against these agencies with the Attorney General’s office for their refusal to respond to the KORA requests.
“The mailings are part of Governor Kelly’s efforts to bring the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Department of Health and Environment (DHE) into full compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).” --Demos press release
How was the compliance problem with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 only discovered by Gov. Laura Kelly during the darkness of COVID when previous Democratic governors Joan Finney from 1993-1995 and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius from 2003-2009 missed it?
Open Records Requests in 2022
Nearly a year after the Sept 23, 2020 Demos press release, Gov. Laura Kelly Announced Expanded Voter Registration Opportunities for Kansans in an Oct. 1, 2021 press release.
Governor Laura Kelly today announced that, through an agreement between a coalition of civil rights agencies and the State of Kansas, Kansans statewide will now have expanded opportunities to register to vote or update voter registration.
Under the agreement, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department for Children and Families will expand opportunities for voter registration, in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Statewide, the agencies have committed to providing additional resources to help people receiving public benefits who want to register to vote.
An initial open records request revealed the contents of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which amounted to Gov. Kelly taking credit for participating in President Biden’s Executive Order, “Promoting Access to Voting.”
President Biden announced this Executive Order on Mar. 7, 2021, but through the MOU Gov. Kelly was taking credit for what she had already accomplished in 2020!
The following article published the MOU and raised many questions:
The same progressive group Demos was the behind both Kelly’s actions in Kansas, and Biden’s national executive order.
Strangely, the MOU expires on June 30, 2025.
A second open records request to the Governor’s office about the relationships among the groups mentioned in her press release resulted in a response with heavily-redacted emails.
However, some names were discovered for the meeting participants.
A follow-up response from the Governor’s office revealed a 13-page “Letter of Concern” from Nov. 2019 authored by Loud Light, Demos and ACLU-Kansas that was the basis for Gov. Kelly to take action.
That letter raised more questions than it answered.
Recent Open Records Requests
The following questions, which were based on the 2020 Demos press release and the 2021 MOU, were sent to the Governor’s office, KDHE and DCF on Feb. 29:
This KORA request is for any written communications (paper or email) among the Governor’s office, KDHE, DCF, and other entities related to the logistics involved with:
The 150,512 voter registration application forms mailed by DCF mentioned in paragraph III (A) of the MOU.
The 127,255 voter registration application forms mailed by KDHE mentioned in paragraph III (A) of the MOU.
Specifically, this request is for all records showing:
the sources of funds used to pay for the printing and postage for the mailings,
the selection of vendors or third parties to provide printing or mailing services,
payments made to vendors or third parties for printing or postage.
The Governor’s office replied by Mar. 25 indicating their understanding was “the Governor’s office was not involved in paying for any remedial mailings.”
DCF never replied to this request.
KDHE gave this response on Mar. 27:
KDHE uses a combination of state and federal funds to pay for the printing and mailing of all eligibility notices. Voter registration mailings are included in this. The funding is not allocated specifically to voter registration mailings.
KDHE utilizes a single in-house vendor, Central Print, to complete the printing and mailing of all eligibility notices and voter registration mailings.
KDHE does not have this information available at this time. If you’re still interested in this information given our other responses, KDHE can further research payments made to Central Print by KDHE for the mailing of eligibility notices, but would be unable to identify the amount of such payments that are allocated specifically to the mailing of voter registration materials.
Based on the responses above, KDHE has no documents to produce to you at this time.
An April 1st email reply email to KDHE and DCF attempted to focus on specific details that should have some sort of documentation:
Under KORA I’d like to obtain the documents answering the questions below:
Someone with statutory signature authority approved the expenditures of funds for these two mailings. Are there documents that reflect the approval of expenditure of funds for these two mailings including the name of the person with signature authority?
Before these two mailings were possible, someone in authority had to request a list of names to target. Are there documents that describe the specification of the parameters used to select (or to reject) individuals for the mailings? The result from the database query should state the number of names found from the database query based on these parameters. These numbers would have been needed to tell the vendor what was needed.
The names (or batches of names) with counts should have been part of the submission to the vendor, Central Point. Are there documents that describe the specifications of the mailings and describe parameters for when they should be mailed?
Are there “completion documents” from the vendor confirming completion of the mailings?
There has been no response since June from a series of requests for updates to KDHE and DCF — and requests for in-person meetings to discuss.
On Aug. 19 KORA complaints were filed with the Attorney General’s office for a remedy to obtain the KDHE and DCF open records.
Only Citizens Voting?
The MOU is a bit confusing since the “agreement” in 2021 covered actions already taken in 2020 for “remedial mailings.”
“Remedial” Mailings
Supposedly to prevent legal actions by Loud Light and ACLU-KS in 2020, the 277,767 voter registration applications were mailed in Sept. 2020 as part of “remedial” actions for past NVRA compliance failures.
Who received these mailings with voter registration forms before the Nov. 2020 election? There is no documentation? Were voter registration forms only sent to known US citizens?
According to the MOU, on paper applications for public assistance there was a “Voter Preference Question,” which was a request for a voter registration application.
However, strange language in the MOU says a voter application would be sent regardless of whether the box was checked: “the federally compliant policy for treating a blank response to a Voter Preference Question as requiring the Agency to send a voter registration application.”
Why ask something on a form if it will be ignored? Were only known US citizens sent the voter registration forms?
The MOU shows a generic cover letter for a voter registration application provided by KDHE:
Note the weak language, “You should only register to vote if you are a US citizen.” the form should be more emphatic that only citizens can register to vote in Kansas.
Food assistance (and voter registration forms) for non-citizens requesting asylum?
President Biden has been playing games about asylum claims by illegal immigrants. Supposedly his new actions will “bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.”
But when the federal government grants asylum claims to illegal immigrants, the migrants become eligible for food assistance in Kansas. Does this mean migrants are likely receiving voter registration forms as part of their request for food assistance?
A case example from policy memo about food assistance:
So asylum allows food assistance immediately when normally there would be a five year waiting period.
KDHE and DCF are not responsive about who gets the voter registration forms they manage.
Help America Vote Verification
Voter registration forms processed by the Kansas Dept. of Revenue are processed by Social Security and their Help America Voter Verification system.
Is it possible that an ever-increasing deceased rate in matching HAVV transactions since 2019 are caused by non-citizens attempting to register to vote using forms provided by KDHE and DCF?
In Kansas for the week ending March 23, 2024 there were 447 HAVV matches to deceased individuals of the 835 matches that week. Why would over half the matches be to deceased?
A KORA request to KDOR about this specific matter was recently received: “we have determined that we do not have any documents responsive to your request.”
Is it possible that voter registration forms given to non-citizens are part of the explanation?
Open records requests in Kansas are failing to provide sunshine and government transparency to the public.
We suffered through a plandemic, not a pandemic! Various individuals in positions of "authority" were privy to a planned attack, domestic and across the globe. Apparently the Governor was among those in a position of authority who was privy to what was about to occur.