Kansas Secretary of State election, 2014

Kansas Secretary of State Election

Primary Date: August 5, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

Race rating: Lean Republican

November 4 Election Winner: Kris Kobach

Incumbent prior to election: Kris Kobach

Kansas State Executive Elections Top Ballot Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General Down Ballot Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner

The Kansas Secretary of State election took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Kris Kobach (R) was first elected in 2010 and sought re-election in 2014. He won against Democratic candidate Jean Schodorf in the general election. Kobach earned another four years in office following the victory.

The contest between Kobach and Schodorf was more competitive than the 2010 race, when Kobach easily defeated Democratic incumbent Chris Biggs. Learn more about polling trends in the race in the polls section or learn about the candidates' positions in the campaign themes section.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Kansas utilizes a semi-closed primary process, in which previously unaffiliated voters can participate in the partisan primary of their choice (a voter who is already affiliated with a party can only vote in that party's primary).

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

Candidates

General election

Kris Kobach - Incumbent
Jean Schodorf - Former Republican state Sen. representing District 25

Lost in the primary

Scott Morgan - Former Lawrence School Board President, businessman, attorney

Results

General election

Secretary of State of Kansas, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Kris Kobach Incumbent	59.2%	508,926
	Democratic	Jean Schodorf	40.8%	350,692
Total Votes				859,618
Election results via Kansas Secretary of State

Primary election

Republican primary

Kansas Secretary of State, Republican Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Kris Kobach Incumbent	64.8%	166,793
Scott Morgan	35.2%	90,680
Total Votes		257,473
Election results via Kansas Secretary of State.

Democratic primary

• Uncontested

Campaign themes

Both candidates for Kansas Secretary of State made public statements about their policy positions during the campaign. The following sections quote these statements verbatim from candidate websites:

Economy

Kris Kobach

“	Improved Business Law and Efficiency We drafted the Business Entity Standard Treatment Act (B.E.S.T.) which the Kansas Legislature passed unanimously. The existing statutes spread filing requirements throughout the law making it difficult to understand the rules for forming a business entity. Before B.E.S.T., according to KU law professor Webb Hecker, the existing law was “a redundant, inefficient, and potentially confusing system.” Supporting B.E.S.T. in his testimony, Hecker said, “In my opinion it is a well-conceived, well-executed unification/standardization of business entity filing requirements that will greatly simplify the filing process for Kansas business entities and their legal counsel.” A New Way to File Annual Reports Secretary Kobach recognized it was time for bureaucrats to stop talking to other bureaucrats and start talking to the business professionals. Partnering with a software company whose customers are professional accountants and tax preparers, we defined national standards to allow professionals to electronically file annual reports for their clients at the same time they prepare tax returns. Creative Tax Solutions, a Thomson Reuters company, is the first to take advantage of this method of filing. It is now available for use by other vendors whose software supports annual report preparation. Reduced Rejected Filings By examining the statutory requirements for rejecting filings compared those requirements to office policy, we found that some of the policies adopted by prior administrations did not have a statutory basis. We changed these policies accordingly. As a result, Annual Report rejections have been reduced from 20% to 8%, a more than 50% reduction in rejections that had no basis in law.	”
—Kris Kobach's campaign website, (2014)

Jean Schodorf

“	One Stop Shop for Kansas Business The Secretary of State is the primary point of contact for businesses within the state of Kansas. We can help Kansas run better by creating the resources that entrepreneurs need, expanding online services, developing efficient contact, and providing secure information communication with the Secretary of State’s office. Security, better business, more jobs. That’s just common sense.	”
—Jean Schodorf's campaign website, (2014)

Voting rights

Kris Kobach

“	Secretary Kobach drafted and helped to pass the most comprehensive election reforms in the country, the Secure and Fair Elections (S.A.F.E.) Act which: Requires Voter ID at the Polls. Requires Proof of Citizenship for New Voter Registrants. Provided anti-fraud protections for the casting of advanced ballots. This act passed with wide Bi-Partisan votes in both the Kansas House and the Senate. It has also been used as a model for similar legislation in other states.	”
—Kris Kobach's campaign website, (2014)

Jean Schodorf

“	Let's Make Voter Registration Simple Again The ability for Kansas citizens to register to vote has been hampered. Last year, more than 1 in 4 of our friends and neighbors in Kansas were denied their right to vote. The current “guilty until proven innocent” method is not right, and it is not just. It is government at its worst. Defending our right to vote. That’s just common sense.	”
—Jean Schodorf's campaign website, (2014)

Polls

Kansas Secretary of State - General Election 2014
Poll	Kris Kobach* (R)	Jean Schodorf (D)	Undecided	Margin of error	Sample size
Public Policy Polling October 9-12, 2014	47%	41%	12%	+/-3	1,081
Gravis Marketing September 30-October 1, 2014	44%	44%	12%	+/-3	850
Public Policy Polling (D) September 11-14, 2014	43%	42%	15%	+/-2.7	1,328
AVERAGES	44.67%	42.33%	13%	+/-2.9	1,086.33
Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to [email protected].

Note: An asterisk (*) denotes incumbent status.

Past elections

2010

Kansas Secretary of State, General Election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Kris Kobach	59%	489,640
	Democratic	Chris Biggs Incumbent	37.2%	308,641
	Libertarian	Phillip Horatio Lucas	2.1%	17,336
	Reform Party	Derek Langseth	1.7%	13,896
Total Votes				829,513
Election results via Kansas Secretary of State

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $791,137 during the election. This information was last updated on May 13, 2015.

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Kris Kobach	Kansas Secretary of State		$396,052
Jean Schodorf	Kansas Secretary of State		$367,533
Scott Morgan	Kansas Secretary of State		$27,552
Grand Total Raised			$791,137

Key deadlines

Deadline	Event
June 2, 2014	Filing deadline (Party Candidates)
August 4, 2014	Filing deadline (Independents)
August 5, 2014	Primary election
November 4, 2014	General election
December 1, 2014	Deadline for State Board of Canvassers to meet
January 12, 2015	Inauguration day for state executive officials elected in November

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Kansas + Secretary + State + Election"

Kansas Secretary of State election, 2014 News Feed

See also

• Kansas Secretary of State
• Kansas state executive official elections, 2014
• State executive official elections, 2014
• Preview of 2014's most competitive down ballot state executive races

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Secretary of State of Kansas