Kansas senators hear presentation on 2020 election fraud, Emporia professor weighs in

TOPEKA (KSNT) – Members of the Kansas Senate heard a presentation on Tuesday regarding possible fraud during the 2020 election caused by China and other international entities.

Election fraud has been a hotly debated topic, especially in light of the recent 2020 Presidential election which resulted in a victory for the Democrat candidate, Joe Biden. KSNT reached out to Dr. Michael Smith with the department of Social Sciences, Sociology and Criminology at Emporia State University to help clear things up. Among other topics, he also teaches about election security and edited the book “Much Sound and Fury, or the New Jim Crow?” which focuses on voting laws in the U.S.

The presentation was given by Maria Zack, Chairman of Nations in Action, who stood before members of the Kansas Senate in the Federal and State Affairs Committee in the legislature. The presentation began with the bold claim: ‘Election Theft is Real’.

“Today we are faced with a new reality, we have interference from China,” Zack said.

Zack cited a variety of reports in her presentation and alleged the 2020 election had been compromised by actors outside of the U.S. in places like Italy and China. She went on to trace a connection between several “operatives” who were part of the alleged election theft in 2020, Dominion Voting and an Italian defense firm called Leonardo.

“Kansas is impacted, the question is ‘how did they impact you and why?’” Zack said. “‘What were the motives and the people behind it?’ So, the question also begs, ‘what is the solution to make sure that that infiltration does not happen?’”

Smith said Kansas was not affected by fraudulent voting or tampering during the 2020 election in any way. Furthermore, he says that Zack’s presentation, which focused on a conspiracy theory regarding voting machines being hacked, has no basis for argument as only 20% of Americans vote on machines that don’t have any type of paper trail and cannot be changed via satellite.

“Clearly, there’s no way that a satellite could alter a paper ballot,” Smith said.

Zack’s proposed solutions include creating a law enforcement group based on public corruption that would combine federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to help look into the international impact of election fraud which, according to Zack, is now on Kansas’ doorstep. She also later offered to provide the senators with a checklist of ways to improve the state’s statutes regarding election laws.

“I think every American, regardless of party, can ask that question of ‘what is wrong?’ and ‘how did things happen?’ and there were so many things that were egregious against the Kansas statutes that you have to start saying, ‘hold on a second, do we believe in the rule of law?’” Zack said. “Do we sit here every day at session and say ‘do these laws actually mean something and are we gonna put teeth in them?’”

Zack went on to say the issue of election fraud spans the U.S. and crosses political party lines. Both the Democrat and Republican Party can do more to prevent election fraud according to Zack.

“America is screaming, regardless of partisanship,” Zack said. “So we need everyone to stop a second, look back, watch what really happened. There are a chain of events that law enforcement needs to address.”

While scattered reports of fraudulent voting in 2020 and past presidential elections does exist, it doesn’t have the ability to change the outcome of a presidential election according to Smith. He also said no research has been conducted that shows that there was a systematic attempt to steal the 2020 election.

“One of the problems with ‘The Big Lie’ is that it ignores the fact that elections are not centralized in the U.S.,” Smith said.

Smith said that due to the nature of how votes are counted on a county level, in order for a conspiracy to exist, it would have to infiltrate the counting that occurs in counties across the U.S. which he called highly implausible.

Zack claimed intelligence agencies are watching corruption and China enter their countries buy off politicians, commit fraud and take other actions to own property and even entire countries.

“I will tell you that anyone who made a statement in this process that there was no election fraud, they need to be investigated immediately,” Zack said. “I don’t care what party they are, I don’t care what position they hold, but for anyone to make that conclusion before an investigation raises a huge red flag.”

Smith summed up Zack’s presentation by saying it was completely baseless. While it did contain some “kernels of truth,” it ignored many facts and was propped up by a theory which has been disproven and doesn’t have any credible research to back it up.

“I think the people of Kansas need to ask some hard questions about a committee dedicating an hour of their time to expand on a discredited conspiracy theory,” Smith said.

Smith said voting during elections should be more secure and can be protected by replacing voting machines with counting via an optical scanner. He elaborated further by saying voting machines should never be connected to the internet and that ballots shouldn’t be filled out by a pencil.

Conspiracy theories, according to Smith, can lead to violent coup attempts such as the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The danger posed to American democracy by such theories should be taken into serious consideration for future elections.

“These conspiracy theories are a dagger pointed at the heart of American democracy,” Smith said.

To watch the full presentation from Tuesday, go here.