Kansas Senator Jerry Moran knows what he said about federal election reform is false

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, up for reelection this year, gave the state’s election officials a big hug Monday.

“I’ve been in county clerk offices as they count votes on election day,” the Republican tweeted. “Kansans know how to administer secure elections, as the Constitution prescribes.”

In general, yes. And that’s why the second part of Sen. Moran’s tweet, opposing federal election reform, is dangerous. The Senate’s efforts to pass national voter standards would “fundamentally ‘change America’ and diminish the voice of Kansans,” the senator claimed.

This is false. Here’s the reality: Moran’s Republican Party is engaged in a systematic effort to use false claims of voter fraud as a cover for enacting laws designed to keep millions of Americans from voting. The Senate bill would do the opposite, allowing all Americans to participate in their government.

In a better world, Senate voting bills would not be needed. Both parties in every state would agree to protect free and fair access to the voting booth, including early voting, robust absentee voting, easier registration, transparency and efficiency.

Both parties would expose the Big Lie for what it is: a salve for Donald Trump, whose ego was bruised in 2020, and a camouflage for rigging future election results.

Sadly, we do not live in that world. That’s why Congress and President Joe Biden should do whatever they can to pass minimal standards for voter rights that apply to all states, including Kansas.

“I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic,” Biden said Tuesday. He said he would support a limited end to the Senate filibuster to accomplish the goal, a welcome and overdue statement.

Naturally, Moran defended the extra-constitutional filibuster Tuesday. “The filibuster protects the minority,” he said. He means the Senate minority. In the nation, real minorities — Blacks, Latinos, the young — are hurt by the 60-vote threshold.

Moran should be honest about what his fellow Kansas Republicans are up to.

In 2021, Kansas GOP lawmakers made it harder to register and use mail-in ballots in the name of “ballot security.” Those laws are now facing a court challenge.

In 2020, current Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said “it’s easy to vote, but it’s really hard to cheat” in the state. The 2020 Schwab should introduce himself to the 2022 Schwab, who has proposed a new series of unnecessary measures to purge voters and audit election results.

Why? Schwab is running for reelection. His GOP primary opponent, Mike Brown, has already criticized Schwab, claiming election integrity “has not been a priority” for the incumbent.

Former Secretary of State Kris Kobach, now running for attorney general, has long been convinced of massive election shenanigans. His efforts at voter suppression, supported by legislators, eventually ended up in court, where he lost.

That fiasco cost Kansans $1.9 million and resulted in a judge’s order that Kobach return to law school for a remedial brush-up on some basics. Kobach’s national election integrity task force collapsed.

He couldn’t find voter fraud because it’s extraordinarily rare. Schwab and Brown are duking it out over nothing because they think that’s what Big Lie GOP voters want.

Legislators bent election rules last year, and will try again this year, because they want to suppress the vote in time for this year’s ballot, and ahead of 2024. It’s the same strategy Republicans are using in virtually every other state they control.

No right is more important than the right to vote. Sen. Moran should do what he can to protect that right, not threaten it.