Kansas election official loses job for violating policy Follow Us
Question of the Day By - Associated Press - Thursday, January 21, 2021
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman said she is losing her job for violating a policy by remotely accessing the state’s voter registration database when working from home while fighting cancer during the coronavirus pandemic.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab informed her earlier this month that when her term as election commissioner expires on July 19, he did not intend to appoint her to another term, Lehman said Wednesday in a news release.
Lehman said she “knowingly chose” to violate Schwab’s policy in order to direct a fair and accurate presidential election, and that violation is the rationale for him not reappointing her, the Wichita Eagle reported.
Sedgwick County/YouTube
Tabitha Lehman, Sedgwick County’s election commissioner since 2011, will not be retained when her term expires in July.
Lehman and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab both posted statements on Twitter on Wednesday night that said Lehman would be replaced.
Press Release from Election Commissioner Lehman pic.twitter.com/0eQXzHEhjv
Schwab oversees the state s elections. He also appoints the election commissioner in the state’s four largest counties: Sedgwick, Johnson, Wyandotte and Shawnee.
Schwab said in his statement that Lehman accessed the statewide voter registration database from her home, a violation of security protocols. The Secretary of State places the highest priority on maintaining safety and security of Kansas elections, Schwab said. The security of our elections systems and the personal information of Kansans will not be put at risk, regardless of the circumstances.
Associated Press
photo by: Ashley Golledge
A sign outside of the Carnegie Building encourages Lawrence residents to vote in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.
WICHITA (AP) A Kansas law designed to allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling place in their county, instead of just their assigned voting precinct, may not be implemented until 2023 because of bureaucratic delays.
Passed in 2019, the law directed Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab to write the rules and regulations to implement it, but with no deadlines on when he had to act, The Wichita Eagle reports.
Officials in Sedgwick County, who championed the measure through the legislative process, had hoped to have the rules in place for the 2020 election cycle. But they’re only now coming up for approval by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Rules and Regulations.
Red tape delays law making voting easier in Kansas
January 8, 2021 GMT
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas law designed to allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling place in their county, instead of just their assigned voting precinct, may not be implemented until 2023 because of bureaucratic delays.
Passed in 2019, the law directed Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab to write the rules and regulations to implement it, but with no deadlines on when he had to act, The Wichita Eagle reports.
Officials in Sedgwick County, who championed the measure through the legislative process, had hoped to have the rules in place for the 2020 election cycle. But they’re only now coming up for approval by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Rules and Regulations.
Fernando Salazar
The 2020 general election set records in Sedgwick County for early voting and the overall number of ballots cast.
A post-election report presented to Sedgwick County commissioners this month shows for the first time, more voters cast ballots during the early voting period than on Election Day.
Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman says 70% of registered voters participated in November’s election, and 68% of those voters used mail-in ballots or in-person early voting.
Sedgwick County 2020 General Election by the numbers:
322,381 registered voters
225,771 ballots cast: 87,382 mail-in ballots; 67,387 ballots from early in-person voting; 62,624 ballots from Election Day voting
8,378 provisional ballots cast