Kansas Officials Investigate Alleged Gift Card Offers to Voters

President Donald Trump criticized a Kansas political action committee after state officials accused it of offering voters gift cards shortly before Election Day.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said Saturday that he had sent a cease-and-desist letter to BlueStem Kansas. The group is accused of offering gift cards in exchange for votes.

Kobach said a voter reported that someone claiming to canvass for BlueStem offered them a $5 gift card. He said the state has photographic evidence and asked the group to preserve communications related to the alleged offers, a step that could precede legal action.

Kansas law treats offering a benefit in exchange for a vote as election bribery, Kobach said, and classifies it as a felony. Federal law also prohibits paying or offering to pay someone to vote in an election involving federal candidates.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that a BlueStem operative had allegedly been caught on camera going door to door in Wichita and offering gift cards for votes. He called the alleged conduct a criminal offense.

Kobach said he had prosecuted voter-fraud cases in Kansas, including cases involving noncitizens voting and people voting twice. He added that he was surprised a group would allegedly offer voters money just days before a general election, and said election-law violations would be prosecuted.

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall accused Democrats of being involved, saying that after political ads failed to sway voters, they had turned to bribery. He urged people to report suspected illegal election activity to the attorney general’s office.

BlueStem Kansas says it supports access to health care and gun control, and opposes school vouchers. Marshall is narrowly trailing Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton in an average of public polls.