News

The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The most populous county in Kansas has rejected demands from the local sheriff and the state's attorney general to preserve old ballots and records longer than legally allowed, shredding materials sought for an election fraud investigation that has yet to result in any criminal charges.

Johnson County in the Kansas City area issued a statement Thursday that its election office finished Wednesday destroying ballots and other records from 2019, 2020 and 2021, under the direction of the secretary of state, the top elections official in Kansas. State law directed local election officials to shred such materials by the fall of 2022, but the Johnson County election office held off because of an investigation its local sheriff, Calvin Hayden, launched in the fall of 2021.

Hayden, a Republican, has questioned the integrity of the county’s 2020 elections even though there's been no credible evidence of significant problems and none statewide. In the summer of 2022, he also participated in a conference for a group that promotes a dubious theory that sheriffs have virtually unchecked power in their counties.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent the county a letter in December, telling it that it