TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A freshman Kansas congressman is accused of providing false information to a sheriff’s deputy to hamper an investigation into whether he broke state election laws by listing a UPS Inc. store postal box as his residence on a state voter registration form.
Republican Rep. Steve Watkins has been charged in state district court with two election fraud felonies, felony interference with law enforcement and a misdemeanor count of failing to inform the state’s Division of Vehicles of an address change. The charges were announced Tuesday evening by the district attorney in Shawnee County, which includes Watkins’ hometown of Topeka, the state capital.
But Kagay’s announcement did not provide any details about the charges, and he declined to discuss them. The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained a copy of the criminal complaint that Kagay’s office filed.
Watkins called the charges “hyper-political” and said he looks forward to clearing his name.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” Watkins said Tuesday evening during the only televised debate for GOP candidates before the state’s Aug. 4 primary election. “We’ve cooperated with the district attorney completely.”
The charges against Watkins came three weeks before the state’s Aug. 4 primary election with fellow Republicans pushing to oust him from the eastern Kansas seat he won in 2018. In the primary, Watkins faces State Treasurer Jake LaTurner and Dennis Taylor, a Topeka attorney, businessman and former top administrator at several state agencies.
The UPS postal box was listed as Watkins’ residential address for voter registration purposes when he cast a mail-in ballot for a local City Council and school board election in November 2019. He later changed his residential listing to an apartment about 2 miles north of the UPS store — in a different city council district with no race last year.
Watkins has said he simply made a mistake by listing his mailing address instead of his residential address on the voter registration form and then corrected it.
Watkins faces a felony charge of voting without being qualified, and the complaint against him alleges that he voted in the race in the City Council district where the UPS store was located. Another felony charge, unlawful advance voting, alleges that Watkins falsely affirmed to a “material fact” in a form for a mail ballot.
The misdemeanor charge alleges that Watkins failed to comply with a state law requiring people to report a change of address to the state Division of Vehicles within 10 days of making the change.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A freshman Kansas congressman who had listed a UPS Inc. postal box as his residence on a state voter registration form was charged Tuesday with three felonies, including illegal voting.
The charges against GOP Rep. Steve Watkins came three weeks before the state’s Aug. 4 primary election with fellow Republicans pushing to oust him from the eastern Kansas seat he barely won in 2018, even though he’s largely toed the conservative policy line and supported President Donald Trump. GOP critics already had worried that the months-long investigation into whether Watkins violated state election laws puts the 2nd District seat in play if he wins the primary.
Watkins called the charges “hyper-political” even though the district attorney who filed them also is a Republican. The congressman said during a televised debate Tuesday evening that he hadn’t seen the charges but has done nothing wrong.
“I’ll get my name exonerated,” he said during his closing statement.
The charges were filed in state district court in Shawnee County, which includes Watkins’ hometown, the state capital of Topeka. District Attorney Mike Kagay announced them less than half an hour before the three GOP candidates’ only scheduled debate began on three stations.
The UPS postal box was listed as Watkins’ residential address for voter registration purposes when he cast a mail-in ballot for a local city council and school board election in November 2019. He later changed his residential listing.
The most serious criminal charge accuses Watkins of voting in the 2019 local city and school board election without being qualified. A first-time offender who’s convicted could face a year in prison, though the more typical sentence would be two years’ probation.
Kagay also charged Watkins with voting illegally in advance and interfering with law enforcement by providing false information. Both felonies could bring up to seven months in prison, though a year’s probation is the presumed sentence.
Watkins also was charged with failing to notify the state Division of Vehicles of a change of address, a misdemeanor.
Kagay’s announcement did not provide details about the alleged crimes, and the district attorney said in an email that he could not discuss them “until they are presented in open court.” A hearing in the case was set for Dec. 3 — a month after the November general election.
Watkins faces State Treasurer Jake LaTurner and Dennis Taylor, a Topeka attorney, businessman and former top administrator at several state agencies. LaTurner said the charges make the primary contest a two-person race between him and Taylor.
“We need to put our best foot forward,” LaTurner said during his opening debate statement. “Clearly, our current congressman, with three felony charges and a misdemeanor charge, is not the person to do that.”
Some Republicans had lingering misgivings about Watkins even before questions about his voter registrations. He is a former Army officer and military contractor who lived most of his adult life outside Kansas and hadn’t voted in its state or federal races until running for Congress.
Watkins won the November 2018 general election by less than a percentage point in a GOP-leaning district that Trump carried by a wide margin in 2016.
The presumed Democratic nominee this year is Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla. The national Democratic Party has said it sees “an opportunity” to pick up the seat.
“If you want to be trusted to write our laws, you should at least follow them,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement.
Watkins filed a state voter registration form in late August 2019 listing a postal box at a UPS store in southwest Topeka as his residential address. The postal box still was listed as his residential address when he cast a mailed-in ballot that included a Topeka City Council race in November.
The congressman and his staff have said he inadvertently listed his mailing address instead of his residential address by mistake.
Watkins filed a new form in December listing an address at an apartment complex about 2 miles north of the UPS store as his residence, but it was the address for the complex’s office. That address was not in the same City Council district as the UPS store but in a district with no council race last year.
In January, Watkins filed another form listing another address for an apartment in the same complex as his residence.
The Shawnee County sheriff’s department began investigating Watkins’ voter registrations in December. In late May, Kagay said in an email that his office had reviewed the investigation and “requested follow up be conducted on a specific issue,” without being more specific.
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