Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach could oversee his own race's recount

If there's anyone who's a self-proclaimed expert on election integrity, it's Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who might get a new shot at clarifying the true outcome of an important race.

Kobach ran a close gubernatorial primary race, leading incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) by just 191 votes as of Wednesday morning. The election will likely require a recount, The Kansas City Star reports, and Kobach could be the one to lead it.

Kobach, who had President Trump's endorsement and headed up the president's "misleading" voter fraud commission before it disbanded, is now in the unlikely position of overseeing the recount effort in his own race. Experts told the Star that there's no rule or law that prevents Kobach's office from being the one to oversee the recount, which could take weeks.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"There's nothing in the statute that says the secretary has to recuse himself," attorney Mark Johnson told the Star. "But I would have to believe that in a situation like this, the secretary would be well advised to remove any appearance of impropriety."

Other experts said that if Kobach were to recuse himself, it would be due to political pressure, not any legal argument. Kobach's office has not yet commented on whether the candidate would step back and allow a deputy staffer to oversee the recount. Read more at The Kansas City Star.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Summer Meza

Summer is news editor at TheWeek.com, and has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School and Santa Clara University, she now lives in New York with two cats.