TOPEKA — House Democrats heckled Leavenworth Republican Rep. Pat Proctor’s latest idea to undermine advance voting after he forced a hearing on a bill that nobody was willing to support.

Proctor, who chairs the House Elections Committee, and vice chair Rep. Paul Waggoner, R-Hutchinson, expressed ignorance during a hearing Tuesday about how House Bill 2493 could lead to fewer ballots being counted. The legislation would require anyone who delivers an advance ballot on behalf of somebody else to put their driver’s license number on the ballot envelope, raising privacy concerns, and that they be a qualified elector, which would disqualify the high school students who volunteer to assist voters.

Ann Mah, a former legislator from Topeka who once served as the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the bill was an example of “pure partisan politics.” She pointed out that the Democrats who use advance ballots outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin.

“That’s called, ‘If you can’t win, cheat.’ There are so many close races that if this bill became law, it could certainly swing more than a few elections,” Mah said.

Proctor, who is seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state, has railed against an imaginary “axis of ballot harvesting,” and a make-believe international conspiracy to undermine elections. He has said that he would prefer to get rid of advance voting entirely and only allow votes to be cast in-person on Election Day. This session, as in past years, he has proposed measures that would make it more difficult to vote in advance.

He took the unusual step of holding a hearing on HB 2493, even though he couldn’t find a single person to testify in favor of the bill. Numerous people voiced opposition.

The proposal would build upon a 2021 law the Legislature passed in response to bogus complaints about the validity of the 2020 presidential election. That law restricts volunteers from delivering more than 10 ballots on behalf of others, even though there has never been evidence that a fraudulent ballot was delivered. Proctor said the driver’s license number would make it easier to verify whether someone had exceeded the threshold.

Opponents such as Mah, who described herself as as “granny activist,” said HB 2493 would just serve to intimidate people into not offering to help their neighbors.

“It is pure voter suppression,” Mah said. “I am a proud and unabashed ballot harvester. This committee has tried to make that term a dirty word, so let me clear the air. A ballot harvester is someone who wants to help neighbors make their votes count.”

‘Crazy question’

Mah’s testimony prompted questions from Proctor and Waggoner about how the bill could possibly lead to fewer votes being counted.

“I can’t see the addition of, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m going to put my driver’s license on here,’ is much of a change at all,” Waggoner said.

In addition to the privacy vulnerability, Mah told him a “great number of people” don’t have a driver’s license.

“You have one, correct?” Waggoner said.

Mah told him there were people who have a suspended driver’s license or can’t afford one.

“I mean, all of us in here, you know, middle class, privileged people, it’s no big deal for us to go down and get a driver’s license,” she said.

Proctor asked her about the concern with requiring a qualified elector to deliver a ballot.

“What is too young to turn in a ballot? Should I be able to give a ballot to a 3-year-old and let him toddle out to the drive and put it in the mailbox?” Proctor said.

Mah told him a lot of high school students would be excluded. And she recalled that a Canadian citizen once worked for research staff for the Elections Committee. Under this bill, she said, he would not be allowed to carry her ballot to the mailbox. Proctor responded with an increasingly hostile line of questions.

Proctor: “Should he be able to vote?”

Mah: “Only if he’s an American citizen.”

Proctor: “Do you think that they should have the right to vote?”

Mah: “Who?”

Proctor: “A noncitizen.”

Mah: “That’s not what I said.”

Several Democrats interrupted, and Proctor responded by slamming his gavel down and demanding “decorum.”

“I asked you a question: Should you think a noncitizen should be able to vote?” Proctor said.

“No, I said they should be able to take a ballot,” Mah said.

“That’s my question,” Proctor said. “If they’re not allowed to vote, why should they be able to help somebody else exercise the right to vote?”

“Wow, that’s a crazy question there,” Mah said, “because I’m totally not getting why you would ask that.”

No surprises

Clay Barker, general counsel for the Secretary of State’s office and a former executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, told the committee that he was in the room in 2010 when Gov. Sam Brownback and U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts said the Republican Party needed to “get in gear” with getting more advance ballots.

The statistics, Barker said, show that 60-70% of voters who ask for advance ballots will turn them in on their own. But if you follow up with them, he said, you can get that number above 90%. Bother parties started to engage in more aggressive “get-out-the-vote tactics.”

He identified his testimony as neutral but his point was clear: Proctor’s bill would hamper efforts by both parties to increase voter turnout.

Rep. Alexis Simmons, a Topeka Democrat, referenced Proctor’s obsession with the so-called “axis of ballot harvesting.” She said Barker’s story made it sound like Brownback was in favor of “a little ballot harvesting.”

“Both parties were doing it,” Barker said, “and I believe at the time, the Republicans thought the Democrats were way ahead of them, and we were being encouraged to catch up.”

Simmons asked if Barker was surprised, given his expertise in elections, that nobody was willing to testify in support of Proctor’s bill.

“With respect, representative, nothing the Legislature does surprises me a lot,” Barker said.

If elected

Proctor acknowledged in a video he posted Thursday to X, formerly known as Twitter, that the bill likely won’t be passed this year.

Speaking to a crowd of eight, Proctor said the current prohibition on helping more than 10 voters turn in their ballots was based on the honor system. The law needs “more teeth,” he said.

“I’m going to try to get it done this year, but House members don’t like to vote on election laws and election years, so it’ll probably be on my legislative agenda as Secretary of State,” Proctor said.

Proctor is running against Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra, in the GOP primary for secretary of state, the job that oversees elections statewide. Democrat Jennifer Day, who served in the House from 2020-2021, also is in the race.

Proctor said concerns about privacy could be eased by envelopes with privacy flaps, although testimony revealed that would force counties to spend 80 cents per ballot envelope, instead of eight cents.

In the video, Proctor also said that if elected secretary of state he would hire a special prosecutor and law enforcement officers to help enforce election violations. As it is, he said, local prosecutors are too busy with more serious crimes.

“You go to him, you say, hey, this person turned in too many ballots. I need you to prosecute,” Proctor said. “They’re going to say something like, well, after I’m done with the carjacking and the two murders that I’m investigating, I’ll get around to your election crime.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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