Kansas mayor charged with allegedly voting as non-citizen in elections

A Kansas mayor has been charged with allegedly voting as a non-citizen in multiple elections.

Kansas Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Attorney General Kris Kobach said Wednesday that they filed six charges in Comanche County against Coldwater Mayor Joe Ceballos, who is a lawful permanent resident from Mexico, for voting in elections in 2022, 2023, and 2024, the New York Post reported.

The mayor's charges include perjury and voting without being qualified, and carry a maximum penalty of more than five years in prison.

Ceballos previously served as a city councilman.

“Noncitizen voting is a real problem. It is not something that happens once in a decade. It is something that happens fairly frequently,” Kobach said.

“In large part, our system right now is based on trust, trust that when the person signs the registration or signs the poll books saying that he is a qualified elector or that he is a United States citizen, that the person is telling the truth,” he added.

“In this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that trust.”

Kobach said that city officials are legally required to be U.S. citizens, adding that it was “worth noting” but not a criminal offense.

Ceballos was on the ballot for reelection on Election Day, but the official results have yet to be certified.

Kobach and Schwab said they recently began using a federal government database to cross-check voter rolls with immigration records that they expect will lead them to find more voting violations.

Ceballos did not respond to the Post's request for comment. His first appearance in court is Dec. 3.