Secretary outlines voter-roll maintenance, noncitizen checks and vacancy process for precinct committee posts

Secretary Scott Schwab and staff described how the office maintains voter rolls, checks for noncitizen registrants, and how vacancies for county-elected seats are filled.

Schwab said his office revised the voter registration form to place the citizenship question prominently and that the office participates in a federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE)-type program to match Department of Homeland Security records with voter rolls. He also said the governor’s office provides lists of temporary noncitizen driver’s licenses that the state can compare to registration records; by law a confirmed noncitizen registration is invalidated.

On resources, Schwab said the voter-roll maintenance is part of routine list maintenance done by county clerks and is “built in” rather than a separately funded program. He referenced the Brownback-era Fish case as background, saying that historically very few noncitizen registrations were found (three over 10 years during a prior review).

Committee members also sought clarity on filling vacancies for county elected offices. Brian Kaskey explained the statutory process: the resigning official should submit a resignation to the governor and provide a copy to the county party chair; the county party convention of precinct committee people must be held within 21 days and the party forwards names to the governor, who has one week to appoint. Kaskey noted that the state law sets the timeframe but not the internal conduct rules for party conventions, which are governed by each political party’s own rules.