In yet more proof that open borders aren’t such a bright idea, Kansas has charged a mayor with six felonies because he voted illegally and swore that he was eligible to vote.
The defendant in the criminal complaint in Comanche County is Jose Ceballos, a Mexican national and mayor of Coldwater.
You read that right. A Mexican national, albeit a legal resident of the United States, became the mayor of an American town. And he illegally voted in elections, prosecutors allege.
So as the social media meme goes, that thing that never happens happened again.
The Complaint
Speaking at a news conference, Attorney General Kris Kobach explained that Ceballos is not only ineligible to vote, but also ineligible to hold political office in the Jayhawk State.
“These charges carry a potential maximum penalty of up to 68 months imprisonment and up to $200,000 in fines,” Kobach said, the Kansas Reflector reported:
The charges, filed in Comanche County, are based on Ceballos’ voting in the 2022 general election, the 2023 general election for local offices and the 2024 primary election, Kobach said.
Ceballos served two terms on the Coldwater City Council and was elected mayor in 2021, a position he is not qualified to hold if he is not a U.S. citizen although it is not a criminal violation, Kobach said.
He referenced a Kansas statute that requires a city officer to be a qualified elector, which requires that person to be a United States citizen.
“He is a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Mexico,” Kobach said.
The criminal complaint charges Ceballos with three counts of “voting without being qualified” and three counts of “election perjury.”
On August 6, 2024; November 7, 2023; and November 8, 2022, the complaint alleges, Ceballos “did unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly vote or attempt to vote without being qualified, at an election by a person, to-wit: Jose Ceballos, who was not a citizen of the United States or who did not otherwise meet the qualifications of an elector.”
On the same three dates, the complaint continues, Ceballos committed perjury by claiming he was qualified to vote.
Each count can end in a $100,000 fine and imprisonment.
Using SAVE
The Reflector website reported that Kansas is using SAVE — the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system — to finger illegal voters, but didn’t use it to nail Ceballos. Kobach did not disclose how authorities caught him, Fox News reported, although one official from the Department of Homeland Security and two officials of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are listed as witnesses in the criminal complaint.
Speaking at the same presser, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said he previously hadn’t believed Kobach that illegal votes by aliens were a problem.
“[U]ntil Kansas began recently using the SAVE database, he had disagreed with Kobach that there was much of an issue,” the Reflector reported:
“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.”
Kobach said he expects there will be hundreds of people on the voter rolls who are not legally eligible to vote. Although that may be a small number compared to the 2 million registered to vote in Kansas, it matters, he said.
An Ongoing Problem
Kobach, Fox reported, has been pursuing illegal voters for years.
“In 2018, he lost a high-profile federal lawsuit after attempting to enforce a state law that required voters to provide physical documentation of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote,” Fox reported. Amazingly, the court ruled against him because the law “exceeded the necessary requirements to confirm citizenship, in violation of federal election laws.”
The law required residents to provide a passport, birth certificate, or another document to register.
Not surprisingly, the subversive, communist-founded American Civil Liberties Union sued Kobach on behalf of the far-left League of Women Voters and “individual Kansans.” It claimed that providing those or other documents is “onerous.”
Also not surprisingly, a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush ruled against Kobach. Judge Julie A. Robinson, as Wikipedia noted, “found that the defense had presented no credible evidence” of a problem. The law, she ruled, violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and the National Motor Voter Registration Act.
It turned out that Kobach was right. Foreign nationals and illegal aliens are voting, and in this case, running for office and winning elections. In Virginia, The Heritage Foundation reported last year, 11,000 aliens were listed on the commonwealth’s voter rolls in the last 10 years.
“Voting by noncitizens, including both legal and illegal aliens, is a very real problem,” Kobach said of the Ceballos case:
It happens. Every time a noncitizen votes, it effectively cancels out a U.S. citizen’s vote.
Coldwater’s Dilemma
For its part, Coldwater is left wondering what to do, the Reflector reported.
“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,” City Council President Britt Lenertz said. “Lenertz said in a telephone interview that the city is unsure what, if any, implications it would have for city business if it is determined Ceballos has not been eligible to hold office. She said the city is reaching out for guidance on the issue.”
Ceballos received 83 percent of the vote.
