TOPEKA — Ford County officials responded Wednesday to a subpoena from a committee of the Kansas State Legislature to produce documents relevant to an election security review that had stalled because officials in the southeast Kansas county had previously refused to cooperate.
In 2023, Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox refused to give state auditors access to the county’s voting systems. On Aug. 6, the bipartisan House and Senate Audit Committee voted to issue a subpoena to compel Cox to turn over information about the 2022 general election and give auditors access to voting machines. Her deadline to comply with the subpoena was 1 p.m. Wednesday, when the joint committee reconvened.
“I believe I have complied with all of the requests for the documents they requested – I understand that,” Cox said in a conference call with committee members. “I sent them an email and sent them a box.”
Senator Caryn Tyson, a Republican from Parker who chaired the committee meeting, asked if Cox had changed her mind and would allow state auditors to examine the county’s voting machines.
“Will they be available to the Legislature’s post-audit staff when they return to Ford County?” Tyson asked.
“Yes,” Cox assured.
Rep. Tom Sawyer, a Democrat from Wichita, asked whether Cox had fully complied with the election security requirements contained in the subpoena.
“She appears to have complied with the subpoena in the main,” said Chris Clarke, the Legislature’s chief auditor. “She has provided most of the information we were looking for. Of course, we will ultimately decide what we have and what we don’t have and what is correct and what is not when we begin the actual audit work.”
Clarke said Cox provided auditors with voting machine maintenance records, software certificates, vendor correspondence, contracts and invoices, post-election ballot testing results, storage facility access logs, mock election results, and voting machine and ballot records. She provided preliminary voter identification forms, computer user authorization levels, password requirements, ballot transmission affidavits, polling place opening and closing checklists, ballot record verification lists and other materials.
However, Clarke said it does not appear that Cox provided the requested information on background checks of election office employees, computer access logs, computer room access lists, seals for voting machines and ballot counting equipment, and key control lists for polling places.
“She gave some explanations,” Clarke said. “And, just to be clear, in the original audit, not all districts had all of these items.”
State auditors tasked with assessing election security during the 2022 primary and general elections initially targeted 15 of the state’s 105 counties. Auditors considered dozens of state laws and federal best practices when examining election security in the selected counties. Reports released in February and July 2023 by the Legislature’s Division of Audit documented the weaknesses and strengths of the counties examined.
The review of voting machines, ballots, storage units and counting machines was prompted by claims by some members of the Republican-dominated legislature that voter fraud was a major problem in Kansas. However, no evidence has emerged in Kansas to support these election conspiracy theories.
At the end of the brief meeting, the Joint Review Committee took no formal action on the materials shared by Cox. If Cox refuses to review again, her refusal to comply with the subpoena must be reported to Parliament and Justice Minister Kris Kobach.
Under Kansas law, county election officials have discretion in how elections are conducted in their counties, meaning methods vary from county to county.
Last year’s audit reports told the Legislature that counties’ election security policies were not detailed enough. Auditors recommended that the Kansas Secretary of State, who serves as the state’s top election official, oversee the training of poll workers.
“State law provides virtually no requirements for the training of election workers and staff,” the audit report states. “Nobody monitors the training of election workers.”
Regarding the Kansas counties previously examined, state auditors said that “counties generally had adequate computer security practices for election processes and administration.” Ballot security practices were “weaker” overall in the counties audited, and the majority of the counties audited had “inadequate security practices for voting and counting machines,” the report said.
The audits also found that counties with larger populations had stronger security measures because they had greater security needs and financial resources.
