BELLE PLAINE, Kan. — A judge has ruled that Kansas’ Republican secretary of state did not violate the state’s open records law by ordering the removal of an election database function that generates a statewide report showing which provisional ballots were not counted.
The decision Wednesday by Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson comes in a lawsuit filed by voting rights activist Davis Hammet. He’s the president of Loud Light, a nonprofit that strives to increase voter turnout.
The judge sided with Secretary of State Scott Schwab in finding that the ability to produce a statewide provisional ballot report in the database is not a public record as defined by the Kansas Open Records Act.
