After noting mathematical discrepancies that run counter to conventional theories about Democrats performing better in larger urban precincts, Beth Clarkson, a statistician at Wichita State, has been attempting to obtain the paper records of the voting tapes, which record every stroke a voter makes on the machine in Sedgwick County.
"There have been a few theories advanced," to explain the discrepancies, Clarkson told Sputnik's BradCast. "The one I find most probable is that the voting machines are being manipulated."
"It fits exactly what you'd expect to see if people are flipping the votes within voting machines."
"If we’re not being counted accurately, we’re losing our right to vote without even being aware of it," Clarkson earlier told KSHB at a celebration for the 95th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
When Clarkson put in her request for the 42 boxes of paper records this week, Secretary of State Kris Kobach asked the judge to block her request, arguing that the records are not part of the open records act.
“They’re basically saying you don’t need to look at these paper records, we can just trust the machine,” Clarkson said.
Clarkson says that she filed the lawsuit in February, and according to the state law the Sedgwick County election commissioner and Kobach were required to respond to her within 30 days- which they both failed to do.
Kobach, a Republican, has also come under fire this week for his strict stances on voter ID laws, having enacted some of the toughest voter ID legislation in the nation.
His newest legislation, which gives residents 90 days to send in proof of citizenship even led him into a social media war with Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton.
“Purging 34,000+ voters from Kansas elections is no administrative rule — it’s a targeted attack on voting rights,” Clinton tweeted last week.
Kobach responded with snark about the candidates’ notorious pant suits.
“And what is the consequence of waiting more than 90 days? It’s not being ‘purged’ as the left-wing knuckleheads claim,” Kobach wrote on Facebook the following day. “It’s just having to fill out the form again. Oh the horror! Hillary is getting her pantsuit in a twist over nothing. #pantsuitinatwist.”
On Wednesday, a state judge rejected Kobach’s attempt to have an ACLU lawsuit against his voter registration scheme dismissed.