Florida man charged with Kansas election crimes allegedly forged signatures on petitions

A Florida man has been charged in Kansas with election fraud crimes after he allegedly forged signatures on petitions.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced Monday that George Andrews, 30, of Dade City, Florida, was charged in Johnson County District Court with two counts of election perjury and 28 counts of election forgery.

"The arrested individual was part of a scheme to defraud Kansas voters by placing their forged signatures on petitions," Kobach said in a statement. "In Kansas, we take election fraud seriously, and we will prosecute every case where the evidence indicates a crime has been committed beyond a reasonable doubt."

Andrews was arrested on Feb. 10 in Florida and is pending extradition to Kansas, the attorney general's office said, after what it called an "extensive investigation." He is accused of forging signatures to get No Labels recognized as an official political party.

Andrews was also arrested on Feb. 6 for a separate investigation.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced that Andrews, whom they described as "a paid petition circulator," and another person allegedly submitted 133 invalid petitions in multiple counties for an abortion rights ballot initiative.

There, Andrews faces 10 felony counts each of criminal use of personal identification information and signing another person's name or a fictitious name to a petition.

In Kansas, Secretary of Sate Scott Schwab announced Jan. 17 that "No Labels Kansas has met the statutory requirements to become an officially recognized political party in Kansas."

That requirement included submitting a petition with signatures from registered voters equivalent to 2% of the votes cast in the 2022 gubernatorial election. County election officials validated the signatures on the petition and reported the results to the state, Schwab said.

No Labels became the fourth currently recognized political party in Kansas, joining the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties.

End Citizens United announced on Jan. 29 that it had filed a complaint against No Labels with Kobach's office. The organization alleged that No Labels had fraudulently misused its nonprofit status.

"In its attempt to run a third-party presidential ticket, No Labels is abusing its nonprofit status in Kansas and we believe Attorney General Kris Kobach should investigate and hold them accountable," End Citizens United president Tiffany Muller said in a statement. "No Labels is a shadowy dark money political group that is grossly exploiting Kansas laws which are designed to benefit legitimate social welfare organizations. If No Labels' corrupt charade continues unchecked, it will set a dangerous precedent for future elections."

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kris Kobach charges Florida man with Kansas election fraud crimes