Mexican mayor faces charges for casting unlawful votes in Kansas elections

Kansas Mayor Charged for Voting Without Citizenship

Kansas officials filed criminal charges against Joe Ceballos, the mayor of Coldwater, a small town in the state, claiming he participated in elections despite not being a U.S. citizen. This announcement came from Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Attorney General Kris Kobach, both Republicans, who detailed six charges against Ceballos for voting in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Ceballos, a legal permanent resident originally from Mexico, has held various positions in local government, including on the City Council. Under state law, jurisdictions must regularly update their voter registration lists, commonly referred to as voter rolls. Kobach, known for his strict stance on immigration and voter ID laws, affirmed the legitimacy of using external databases to filter out non-citizens in the voting process.

“Unpopular voting is a real concern,” Kobach remarked, reflecting a prevalent Republican view that voter fraud is a recurring issue, not a rare occurrence.

The charges against Ceballos include perjury and voting while ineligible, which could result in a prison sentence exceeding five years. Ceballos has yet to respond to requests for comments.

Kobach, who previously served as secretary of state, has a reputation for advocating stringent voter ID regulations. In a notable case from 2018, he faced legal defeat when trying to enforce a state law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, a measure deemed excessive by a federal court.

The court determined that the rationale for the law was unsupported by substantial evidence of voter fraud attributable to non-citizens. Kobach has not disclosed how authorities identified Ceballos as allegedly non-citizen but claims they possess “unshakable evidence.”

While Kobach noted that being elected officials requires U.S. citizenship—a point he found significant—it does not constitute a criminal offense. Ceballos stood for re-election on Election Day, although results have not yet been officially confirmed.

“Our system relies heavily on trust,” Kobach explained. “When a person registers or signs a poll book claiming to be eligible to vote or a U.S. citizen, the expectation is that they are truthful,” he added, stating the charges against Ceballos suggest a breach of that trust.

Kobach and Schwab indicated that they have started utilizing federal databases to align voter registrations with immigration records in hopes of uncovering more instances of voting violations.