Candidate McClendon seeks to improve voter registration, security through technology

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Democratic Secretary of State candidate Brian McClendon said he wants to make registering to the vote easier and voting more secure in Kansas.

He was in Hays on Monday to speak to the Rotary Club.

McClendon said all states are facing election security problems, but he ranked Kansas’ concerns an 8 out of 10.

McClendon was the founder of the company that ultimately became Google Earth. He has also worked for Uber and currently is a researcher at the University of Kansas, his alma mater, and works with tech startups in Kansas.

McClendon spoke to a group at Hays High School in November about his time at Google and Uber.

Kansas Secretary of State candidate Brian McClendon speaks to the Hays Rotary Monday afternoon.

McClendon became active in Kansas voting issues when he helped develop a voter registration app for the state, ksvotes.org. It’s a web app, so type the web address into the web browser on your phone. The app uses the federal election form, can be accessed through a cellphone and sends an email to your county clerk’s office. The form takes less than three minutes to complete.

McClendon said more than 6,000 Kansans in 102 of the state’s 105 counties have been registered through the app, which he claims is more accurate than paper entry.

“I think as we roll up to the general election, we’ll get a lot more Kansans registered, get a lot more Kansans participating ” he said, “and I think that is important because I think we need to make some very good decisions this year. There are some very good people on the ballot. Let’s see if we can pick them, and have a good race in November.”

The site will allow you to make changes to voter registration, for example if you have moved. You can also check your registration. This will allow you to see your voting district, polling place and a sample ballot.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is running for governor, has not gone on the record about the app. His office has given verbal approval of the use of the app, and the creators of the app have been receiving positive feedback from the state’s county clerk about the registrations they have been receiving.

Kobach championed a state law that required people to provide proof citizenship when registering to vote in Kansas. That portion of the law was struck down by the courts, and Kobach defended the state in its last appeal in May.

Kobach was given the ability by the Legislature to prosecute those who voted illegally. Kobach fought for the law on the grounds it was needed to keep illegal immigrants from voting. Only one non-citizen was successfully prosecuted in seven years for voting illegally. That was someone who had a green-card and was in the citizenship process.

The other eight people who Kobach prosecuted were all Trump voters who had voted in two states, McClendon said.

The law also blocked 35,000 Kansans from voting because they were unable to produce a birth certificate.

“We had 35,000 citizens disempowered for one apparently guilty immigrant citizen,” he said. “I think that is a terrible, terrible ratio and against everything that the United States stands for.”

A portion of that law that requires voters to present ID at the polls is still in effect. McClendon said he would support the voter ID portion of the law if Kansas can easily make IDs available for free to all non-drivers, but he said he did not think that was the current reality. Some counties have been proactive in getting IDs for people who can no longer drive or young people who chose not to drive.

On the issue of security, McClendon said he supported the use of paper ballots so that elections can be audited.

“Without a paper ballot, if a machine was compromised, you couldn’t detect it,” he said. “If we can detect it, we can stop it.”

He said the second step would be to use voting machines with better operating systems that can be tested from the outside more effectively.

McClendon also expressed concerns about the Crosscheck System. This system sends voter registration records from Kansas to 26 other states to determine if a person has moved out of state. However, there was a breach in the security of that system last year, when an election worker in Florida sent 945 Kansas voting records to a private person as part of an open records request. This information included partial Social Security numbers.

McClendon said Crosscheck is still vulnerable to hacking and could open the state up to lawsuits if the database is compromised.

He said there is a risk of someone hacking the voter registration files and moving or deleting voters’ registration records. This would mean people would have to vote provisionally, which could discourage voting. It could also result in long lines at the polls, which could also discourage voters.

“The biggest risk is really around people,” he said, “having people give out their password information, which allows a hacker to get in and allows them to portray themselves as one of our own employees. I would make sure through training that people don’t fall for these spear phishing techniques that are intending to steal identity and steal login information.”

He said both workers in the Secretary of State’s office and local county clerks’ offices need to have thorough training, something McClendon said he did not think is happening now.

McClendon also said he thought the state needs to invest more wisely in its technology.

“Right now the state struggles with technology purchases,” he said. “We spend $400 (million) to $500 million on technology each year, and if you look at systems like the DMV and the other purchases we have made, we do not spend it efficiently. I think there is an opportunity to make the state far more efficient and reduce costs in technology and get twice as much out of it.”

Although registration is closed for the Aug. 7 primary, you can still use the ksvotes.org app/website to register for the Nov. 6 general election. The deadline to register for the general election is Tuesday, Oct. 16.

In-person advance voting is under way and can be done at the Ellis County Clerk’s Office. Advance voting ends at noon on Monday Aug. 6. Primary polls will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7. Find a list of polling places by clicking here.