Kansas legislators lash out at absent Ford County clerk during briefing on election audits

TOPEKA — Legislators ordered an audit of Ford County’s upcoming election and suggested the county clerk resign after being briefed on audits that found inadequate security processes and poll worker mishaps in the county’s past elections.

Auditors on Monday presented legislators with findings from two separate elections in Ford County. Debbie Cox, the Ford County clerk, wasn’t present at the hearing, and Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, said Cox “disrespected” the committee with her absence.

“If I was in Ford County I’d have grave concern over the election coming up,” Tyson said.

The hearing was the latest in a series of clashes among lawmakers and Cox. The legislative post audit committee subpoenaed Cox in August to compel her to comply with an audit of the county’s 2022 general election security process. She eventually complied, and the findings of the audit were presented to the committee Monday, along with an audit of the county’s August 2024 primary election.

Cox told Kansas Reflector on Wednesday that her absence at Monday’s hearing was because of scheduling conflicts. She said she had back-to-back phone calls and meetings, which is why she didn’t show.

“I did not mean any disrespect, but I have a job to do here,” said Cox, who is running for reelection this year unopposed.

She said she is focused on providing election information and training for poll workers leading up to the November election, and she welcomes another audit.

Legislators on Monday unanimously authorized an audit of Ford County’s November 2024 general election.

The idea behind an additional audit of Ford County’s election processes is to “reassure Kansas that the elections are fair and safe,” said Rep. Sean Tarwater, R-Stilwell, at the hearing.

“But I would say that we really need (Cox) to start showing up to this stuff or resign,” he said.

Ford County is home to roughly 34,000 people, and about 16,300 of them are registered voters, according to 2024 primary data. More than half of the county’s population is Hispanic or Latino, according to 2022 American Community Survey data from the  U.S. Census Bureau.

Tyson requested state auditors take a look at “valid voters” in their examination of the county’s November election.

“I do know that we have an issue with immigration down there,” Tyson said. “We welcome wholeheartedly legal immigrants, but we want to make sure that noncitizens are not impacting our elections also.”

It is against federal law for noncitizens to vote in American elections, and instances of noncitizen voting have been historically rare despite claims that it is a widespread problem. In 2018, then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach failed in federal court to prove his claims of noncitizen voter fraud in Kansas.

The focus of the findings presented to legislators Monday showed issues in Ford County with ballot reconciliation, or when the number of ballots match the number of signatures in a poll book, during the Aug. 6, 2024, primary election and ballot security during the 2022 general election.

Auditors found a discrepancy in the August primary of one ballot cast without a matching signature. Poll workers allowed an election worker, who was an eligible voter, to cast a ballot without signing the poll book, said Samuel Dadds, the audit team’s supervisor.

“The discrepancy occurred because poll workers didn’t follow the procedures set by the county clerk and state law,” Dadds said at the Monday hearing.

Poll workers didn’t fill out a sanctioned ballot reconciliation sheet to log the mistake, instead using a handwritten tally sheet that misrepresented the poll book counts, and they didn’t document the discrepancy or explain the cause like they’re required to do under state law.

As of September, elections officials updated the poll books to correct the error, and Cox vowed to retrain poll workers.

The audit of Ford County’s 2022 general election security practices found a mix of adequate and inadequate process.

Ford County poll workers didn’t always complete the necessary paperwork to show the correct number of ballots were cast and tabulated, according to the audit. It also found that the county had inadequate testing practices before and after elections. The clerk didn’t test whether tabulation machines would correctly return results for a mock election, which is required for all counties under state law. Ford County also had no documentation of the process for moving election materials to and from polling places, the audit found.

“You know, I think based on how poor a job they’ve done, we ought to do a November audit to see if they made any progress at all or if it’s gotten any better,” said Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita. “I mean, this is pretty egregious, and I think we ought to do it.”

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Cox in 2018, claiming her decision to move a voting location that served roughly 27,000 people outside of Dodge City limits interfered with the fundamental right to vote and disenfranchise Ford County’s Latino voters. The ACLU dropped the case in 2019 when Cox agreed to add polling sites.