Kansas Officials Call Error-Ridden Spanish-Language Voting Guides ‘An Administrative Error’

By Sameer Rao Apr 11, 2016

A spokesperson for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach took responsibility on Saturday (April 9) for critical errors in its Spanish-language voting guide. 

"It was an administrative error that I am diligently working to fix," communications manager Craig McCullah told The Kansas City Star.

A Democratic consultant writing for Daily Kos picked up the error last week, noting that the English-language guide said voters must be registered at least 21 days before the election, while the Spanish-language guide said 15 days. The Spanish-language one also didn’t mention that voters could use a passport as acceptable ID. The errors proved controversial in part because, as Talking Points Memo noted, Kobach has previously supported voter ID measures. Kobach also maintains strong anti-undocumented immigration position; he recently told the Topeka Capital-Journal that he helped Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump create his border policy. 

McCullah told the Star that online versions have already been updated to fix the voter registration deadline discrepancy. He attributed the wrong date to clerical errors introduced while revising old guidelines and said the office will consult a translator moving forward.