Florida man taken into custody for alleged election fraud in Kansas

TOPEKA — Attorney General Kris Kobach said an individual was arrested in Florida for allegedly forging signatures on a petition to qualify the No Labels organization as an official political party in Kansas.

The attorney general’s office said George Andrews, 30, of Dade City, Florida, was charged with dozens of counts of election misconduct. He was arrested Feb. 10. Once extradited to Kansas, Andrews would be required to appear in Johnson County District Court.

“The arrested individual was part of a scheme to defraud Kansas voters by placing their forged signatures on petitions,” Kobach said. “In Kansas, we take election fraud seriously, and we will prosecute every case where the evidence indicates a crime has been committed beyond a reasonable doubt.”

An investigation by the attorney general’s office led to charging Andrews with 28 counts of election forgery and two counts of election perjury.

In 2015, the Kansas Legislature granted the attorney general’s office authority to prosecute election crime. That power was previously held by the secretary of state’s office. In that role as secretary of state, Kobach’s staff prosecuted a dozen cases of election fraud.