KS audit finds Johnson County has strong election security, debunking baseless claims

Johnson County consistently outperformed other Kansas counties in a legislative audit of election security published Thursday.

A survey from the Legislative Division of the Post Audit evaluating election security in 15 counties based upon best practices drawn primarily from the federal Election Assistance Commission’s guidelines found that larger counties tend to have stronger security protocols than their smaller counterparts because they have higher needs and more resources.

Though the audit was originally requested by state Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Hiawatha independent who promoted election fraud conspiracy theories during his unsuccessful run for governor last year, the finished product pushed back on repeated baseless allegations that elections in Kansas’ most populous areas are insecure.

“Larger counties generally had stronger security practices than smaller counties likely because of their greater security needs and resources,” the audit said.

Johnson County was one of seven larger counties reviewed alongside Wyandotte, Sedgwick, Douglas, Miami, Riley and Harvey counties. Wyandotte, Sedgwick and Johnson have among the most resources and staff for elections in the state as three of the four counties with a dedicated election commissioner.

The smaller counties reviewed included Dickinson, Jackson, Chautauqua, Lincoln, Russell and Sheridan. The auditors sought to review practices in Chase and Ford counties but were unable to because election workers had sealed election documents in ballot boxes that can only be opened by a court order.

Johnson County in particular has been a focus of election deniers since the 2020 election. The county’s shift from red to blue in recent years has fueled baseless claims of fraud and irregularities.

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden launched an investigation into voter fraud in the county in 2021, but as of last month the sheriff had filed just one case for an alleged incident of voter intimidation during the 2022 primary, which took place before voting had even started in the county. Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe’s office declined to prosecute Hayden’s case because of a lack of evidence. Howe and Hayden are both Republicans.

The audit reviewed best practices for security of election processes, management computers, ballot security, voting and tabulation machines and transfer and movement of machines.

Deficiencies, the auditors noted, tended to come down to training of staff and, especially in smaller counties, a lack of resources.

Auditors were careful to note that failure to meet the best practices was not an indication of insecure elections.

“No county in our sample had adequate practices for all the best practices and statutes we reviewed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the elections aren’t secure,” the audit said. The criteria evaluated were based on the Election Assistance Commission best practices. The audit said full implementation of each measure would bolster a community’s security but that is ideal and it is unrealistic to expect full achievement, especially considering localized needs and budgets.

The weakest areas across all 13 counties reviewed by auditors were in ballot security and voter and tabulation machine security. Chase and Ford counties were excluded because of unavailable documents.

Andy Brienzo, the supervisor of the audit, told lawmakers the challenges on ballot security largely came down to documentation of ballot movement.

“The problems we found were really related to documenting like a comprehensive accounting,” Brienzo said.

In some larger counties like Sedgwick, he noted, the forms were well created but volunteers didn’t always fill them out correctly.

“We think that’s mostly a training issue,” he said.

Though that category was identified as one of the weaker statewide, Johnson and Wyandotte counties were both marked as maintaining adequate practices.

“Clearly based off of their conclusions there’s no glaring, you know, faults or processes or practices,” Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said. “They kind of point out that they obviously could be enhanced but that probably could be done with any kind of process or system that they evaluate. They come at it from a very high level, detailed approach.”

“The conclusion was that elections are safe, they’re complex, and there’s a lot of things in place.”

On voter machine management, Johnson County had better security practices than any other county reviewed. Most of the issues, Brienzo said, were related to testing practices in compliance with the state’s law requiring a post-election test.

Bryan Caskey, Kansas’ director of elections, said the criteria the audit used, which dinged larger counties for not testing every single machine, did not align with the office’s interpretation of state law.

“The law is not that specific,” Caskey said. “I have not heard anyone say every ballot style on every single machine has to be done.”

The audit recommended the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office take on a large role training and advising local election offices on best practices ahead of the 2024 election.

Caskey said the office intended to take that step, but noted there was no single way to administer elections and that resources limited the best practices counties could implement.

“There’s not a single list that everyone agrees ‘if you do this you’re gonna be secure,’” he said.

Smaller counties, Caskey said, would need more assistance than larger ones because “they just don’t have the expertise or the resources.”

While Caskey said he would argue that every county needs more resources for election administration, individual counties are operating on tight budgets.