Wichita, Kansas: Attorney General Orders Bluestem Kansas to Stop Offering Gift Cards to Voters

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has ordered Bluestem Kansas to stop offering gift cards or any other incentives tied to voting, two days before the general election on Tuesday, November 3.

In a cease and desist letter sent on Saturday, October 31, Kobach demanded that the group halt the offers at once and preserve every record tied to its canvassing operation. His office said the action followed evidence received the same day from a Kansas voter who was offered a five dollar gift card by a canvasser who identified himself as working with Bluestem Kansas.

What the letter demands

The letter directs Bluestem Kansas to preserve emails, text messages, canvassing scripts, training materials, payment records, and communications with vendors and canvassers.

Under K.S.A. 25-2409, election bribery covers giving, offering, or agreeing to give a benefit in exchange for voting at a public election. The offense is a severity level 7 nonperson felony under Kansas law. Federal law, at 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), also bars paying or offering to pay a person for voting in an election that includes federal candidates.

Kobach, who served as Kansas secretary of state before becoming attorney general, put the allegation in blunt terms in his office's release. "This sounds like Chicago in the 1950s, not Kansas in the 2020s," he said, and he vowed that anyone who violates state election laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Trump points to Wichita

President Donald Trump took the claim national on Sunday. In a social media post, Trump said a canvasser was caught on camera going door to door in Wichita offering gift cards to people for votes, and he said there is photographic evidence. Newsmax reported the post on Sunday, and KCTV5 in Kansas City also reported the attorney general's action.

The attorney general's release does not name the city where the reported offer happened. Trump's post placed the door to door activity in Wichita, the largest city in Kansas.

What voters are asked to do

The attorney general's office is asking any Kansan who was offered a gift card, cash, or another incentive by Bluestem Kansas or its canvassers to call 785-296-2215. Investigators want the date and location of the contact, what was offered, what the canvasser asked the voter to do, any photos or video of the exchange, and any written material the canvasser left behind.

What is not known yet

Kobach's announcement did not identify any criminal charges against Bluestem Kansas or its canvassers, and the allegations have not been tested in court. The release does not say how many voters received offers, and no response from Bluestem Kansas appeared in the reports published by Sunday evening.

The letter is the second gift card action from Kobach's office in five weeks. On September 28, he directed the League of Women Voters of Kansas and its Leavenworth chapter to stop giving five dollar Starbucks gift cards to students who registered to vote at high school drives in Lansing and Leavenworth, and he referred that matter to the United States attorney for Kansas. That case involved registration, not voting itself, and the League's state president said at the time that she had no comment.