Lawsuit Requesting Decertification of 2020 Election Filed in Kansas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Sept. 15, six voters filed a lawsuit against Gov. Laura Kelly (D), Secretary of State Scott Schwab (R), Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R) and the Kansas director of elections challenging the results of the 2020 election in Kansas as well as the use of electronic voting machines and drop boxes throughout the state. In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim — based on “first-hand knowledge” — that “electronic voting systems are NOT safe and secure, which undermines the voter’s intent, therefore violating fundamental voting rights according to the fourteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” The plaintiffs also allege that the defendants certified “illegal” elections in 2020, 2021 and 2022 since these elections involved the use of “uncertified” electronic voting machines in violation of Kansas law and the voting equipment standards outlined in the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Additionally, the plaintiffs challenge the use of drop boxes for violating the Kansas Constitution and request that the court ban their usage. The plaintiffs ask the court to compel the defendants to “de-certify…and re-run the Kansas 2020 presidential election, in accordance with the law, as soon as possible, by way of a special election, with paper ballots only, on a single election day, with the paper ballots being counted by hand.”
The plaintiffs’ complaint is replete with unfounded, conspiratorial assertions and bears resemblance to lawsuits filed in Michigan and Arizona requesting the 2020 election be “re-run.” Additionally, the Kansas plaintiffs’ allegation that “[t]he 2020 election analysis has shown probable outcome manipulation through an Algorithm” is strikingly similar to an argument made in a lawsuit filed by Joey Gilbert (a former GOP gubernatorial candidate in Nevada) whose case was dismissed for “having no competent evidence.” There are currently pending lawsuits challenging the reliability of electronic voting machines in Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire and Oregon. Another case in Alabama filed by a group of Republicans that argued that the state’s electronic voting machines “subject[ed] voters to cast votes on an illegal and unreliable system” has already been tossed. This lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits spreading harmful conspiracy theories about voting machines and further exacerbating the problems created by the “Big Lie.”