Kansas state officials have filed criminal charges against Joe Ceballos, the mayor of Coldwater, a small city in rural Kansas, alleging that he voted in multiple elections despite not being a U.S. citizen.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Attorney General Kris Kobach announced Wednesday that six charges were filed against Ceballos, who is a legal permanent resident originally from Mexico. According to state officials, the charges relate to ballots cast in elections held in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Ceballos previously served as a city council member before becoming mayor.
State law requires election officials to maintain accurate voter registration rolls, including procedures intended to identify ineligible voters. Kobach said those processes rely in part on external databases, but noted that such systems are not always comprehensive and may fail to identify every case immediately.
Court filings reviewed by Fox News Digital indicate that prosecutors allege Ceballos voted while ineligible and made false statements related to his eligibility. If convicted on all counts, the charges could carry a potential sentence of more than five years in prison, according to the filings.
Kobach, who previously served as Kansas secretary of state, has long advocated for stricter voter registration requirements and immigration enforcement. In 2018, a federal court blocked a Kansas policy requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, ruling that the measure exceeded what federal election law allows.