The day after a Kansas mayor was re-elected, he was arrested on charges that he had voted despite not being a citizen of the country.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said it was a violation of Kansas statutes for an elected official not to be a U.S. citizen.
Coldwater Mayor Jose Ceballos faces three felony counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury, according to KSN-TV.
“He is not a United States citizen,” Kobach said on Wednesday. “He is a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Mexico.”
Ceballos, who will appear in court next month on the charges, could get 68 months in prison and a fine of up to $200,000 if he is convicted.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said he believes more “noncitizen voting” may be uncovered as the state uses a federal tool made available by the Trump administration to root out noncitizens on state voter rolls.
“They could be a legal resident but not a citizen, and we want to make sure that gets clarified,” Schwab said. “If they voted, it is a crime.
The charges against Ceballos stem from votes in the 2022 general election, 2023 general election, and 2024 primary election, Kobach said, according to the Kansas Reflector.
Ceballos, who served two terms on the Coldwater City Council and was first elected mayor in 2021, is not technically qualified to hold his post, Kobach said.
Should we have a national voter ID law?
Kansas law requires officeholders to be qualified electors, which requires being a U.S. citizen.
Schwab said that he did not believe the state had an issue with its voter rolls until the federal help came along.
“We’re currently verifying. We don’t want any false positives, but attorney general, be prepared to be busy as we go through these and find out potential positives of people who are non-U.S. citizens that have voted,” Schwab said.
“I was never really a big believer this happened. I always came from the angle of, let’s prove it’s not happening, and then we get the data, and it’s important we clean this up,” he said.
Kobach said the argument that noncitizen voters may be a small number overall misses the point.
“I would argue that even when it doesn’t affect an outcome, it still effectively takes the vote away or cancels the vote of a U.S. citizen,” he said.
The Coldwater City Council posted a brief comment on the mayor’s arrest on Facebook.
“At this time, our focus remains on ensuring that city operations continue to run smoothly and that the needs of our community are met. While the recent allegations involving the mayor are understandably concerning, we will allow the proper legal process to take its course before making any further comments. It’s important that we respect both due process and the integrity of our local government,” the post said.
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