I told all here not to sleep on The Kansas City Star, because it's the go-to source for what is an increasingly bizarre Republican gubernatorial primary in the state of Kansas. Xenophobic vote-suppressing grifter Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State, is still clinging to a slim lead over semi-incumbent Jeff Colyer. In the face of national hilarity at the prospect of Kobach's presiding over an election in which he is one of the candidates, Kobach has recused himself from the official duties of the office he currently holds—but not before this remarkable passage appeared in the Star:

Thomas County Clerk Shelly Harms confirmed that Colyer received 522 votes on election day rather than the total of 422 that had been reported by the secretary of state’s office. She shared a scan of the form she submitted to Kobach’s office, which clearly showed 522 votes for the governor, and said the secretary of state’s office was responsible for the discrepancy, not the county.

Oh, was it now? This kind of thing seemed to be general, all over Kansas.

Later Thursday, Haskell County confirmed that its reported vote totals also were incomplete. Colyer received 220 votes in the county, which was 117 more than previously reported. Kobach received 257 votes in the county, which is 147 more than previously reported. Deputy Haskell County Clerk Emily Aragon said that the county was still missing a precinct when it sent initial results to the secretary of state’s office Tuesday night. The county sent updated results later that night, but the hundreds of new votes were not made public until Thursday.She stressed that these results are still unofficial until the county’s canvas board meets.

Drew Angerer Getty Images

Wyandotte County’s vote totals posted on its elections webpage twice didn’t match up with the numbers posted on the Secretary of State’s website on Thursday. Throughout Thursday, the Kansas Secretary of State listed Kobach’s vote from Wyandotte County at 2,737, while Colyer fetched 1,538. Then in the afternoon, Wyandotte County’s election site changed its total, listing 2,714 votes for Kobach and 1,532 for Colyer. But later on in the evening, Wyandotte County changed its vote total once again. It said Kobach had received 2,769 while Colyer had 1,564. By press time, Kobach’s had picked up 32 votes from Wyandotte County’s tally, compared to the information posted on the Secretary of State’s website. Colyer picked up 26 in an election where, truly, every vote will matter...The difference between the two candidates stood at 106 votes as of Thursday.

All of this would simply be a sad commentary on the way the world's oldest democracy handles the most basic democratic act of all. But Kris Kobach is involved, so good faith blows away like dandelion fluff. I don't trust his recusal as far as I can throw Allen Fieldhouse. I know very little about Jeff Colyer, but I do know that he hasn't made a career out of suppressing the franchise of minority voters, and I do know that he didn't head up a "voter integrity" commission that wasted vast amounts of taxpayer money chasing the phantoms present only in the mulch between the ears of the current president*. I wouldn't vote for Colyer on a bet, but that doesn't mean I'm not a fan at the moment.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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