Kansas governor accuses Kobach of not counting all votes in governor race

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) accused Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) on Friday of intentionally pushing a miscount of the number of ballots cast in the gubernatorial primary race.

“Secretary Kobach’s office was instructing counties not to count ballots that are in the mail, and those clearly have to be counted under Kansas law,” Colyer said in a Fox News interview.

The governor also expressed concern over the counting of provisional ballots for voters who are registered independents but are allowed to vote in the primary.

Kobach responded to the allegations Friday, saying in a press release “allegations that my office has given inaccurate advice to local election officials regarding the handling and counting of mail-in and provision ballots” are “incorrect.”

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The Tuesday primary is still too close to call, with Kobach’s lead at under 100 votes in a race where over 300,000 ballots were cast.

As Kansas’s secretary of state, Kobach oversees the vote-counting process. He recused himself on Friday from those responsibilities after Colyer called on him to do so.

Kobach’s had an endorsement from Trump despite concern from some other Republicans that he will lose a general election. He has repeatedly hit Colyer as the “establishment” candidate.

The governor defended his own relationship with Trump in his Fox interview, saying, “I’ve been a good supporter of President Trump. I trust the president, he’s been a good leader and we’ve worked very strongly with the administration.”