![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/coldwaterkansasmayor-690bc805d1751.jpg\")
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Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach dropped a bombshell Wednesday, announcing election fraud charges against Coldwater Mayor Jose (Joe) Ceballos, just one day after voters handed him another term in office.Ceballos, 54, was charged in Comanche County with three counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury, non-person felonies that could land him behind bars for more than five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn large part, our system right now is based on trust. Trust that when the person signed the registration or signs the pollbooks saying that he\u2019s a qualified elector or that he is a United States citizen, that the person is telling the truth,\u201d Kobach said. \u201cIn this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kobach said Ceballos is a legal permanent resident but not a U.S. citizen \u2014 calling him a citizen of Mexico who never should have been voting in American elections, let alone leading a Kansas town.<\/p>\n
Jose Ceballos. (Coldwater, Kansas)<\/p>\n
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said new tools from the Trump administration helped uncover the alleged fraud. \u201cWe now have tools, thanks to the current White House, that we haven\u2019t had in over 10 years,\u201d Schwab said. \u201cThat we can check through the SAVE program, to find out if folks end up on our voter rolls. And they could be a legal resident, but they\u2019re not a citizen. We want to make sure that gets clarified.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SAVE program \u2014 run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 lets government agencies verify immigration and citizenship status for things like licenses or voter rolls.<\/p>\n
Locals expressed frustration, accusing state leadership of misleading them \u2014 including Republican gubernatorial candidate Philip Sarnecki, who shared his reaction on X.<\/p>\n
Kansas is one of eight states requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, a law Kobach helped pioneer years ago.<\/p>\n
In Coldwater, city leaders\u00a0scrambled to contain\u00a0the fallout. City Council President Britt Lenertz said Ceballos called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to address the charges<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, our focus remains on ensuring that city operations continue to run smoothly and that the needs of our community are met,\u201d Lenertz said. \u201cWhile the recent allegations involving the mayor are understandably concerning, we will allow the proper legal process to take its course before making any further comments. It\u2019s important that we respect both due process and the integrity of our local government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coldwater officials later confirmed Ceballos would need to prove his citizenship to keep his seat. City Attorney Skip Herd said Ceballos is a green card holder who\u2019s been registered to vote since 1990 \u2014 despite never being a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a registered voter since 1990. He applied for citizenship in February of this year, and through that, raised the issue of whether he was a legal citizen,\u201d Herd said.<\/p>\n
Under Kansas law, candidates for city office must be eligible voters and residents, though home rule gives cities some leeway. But as the case unfolds, the small Kansas town finds itself at the center of a national flashpoint over election integrity.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Pam Bondi obliterated Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin over the Jeffrey Epstein files.<\/p>\n
During a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Tuesday, Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn was brought up because she has pushed for the release of Epstein files in the past.<\/p>\n
Bondi and Blackburn asserted that Durbin was impeding the effort, but Durbin refuted this, despite records indicating he had indeed blocked the release.<\/p>\n
Blackburn and Bondi tag-teamed Durbin after he denied a subpoena for the flight logs and knowing Reid Hoffman, a known Epstein affiliate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it very interesting that you refused repeated Republican requests to release the Epstein flight log in 2023 and 2024, you fought that. Did you take money from Reid Hoffman campaign donations?\u201d Bondi said<\/p>\n
Durbin denied taking donations from Hoffman, but Hoffman has given millions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which supports Durbin as a top Senate Democrat.<\/p>\n
Bondi shot back: \u201cWhy did you fight to not disclose the flight logs, Senator Durbin?\u201d<\/p>\n
Durbin falsely claimed that he \u201cdid not\u201d fight against\u201d Blackburn\u2019s subpoena, adding, \u201cI asked you if you wanted any documents like flight logs to put it in writing. You never did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackburn shot back: \u201cYes, sir, I did. And your staff knows that I did. We\u2019ll submit once again, the information to you. We\u2019ve done that several times, but we\u2019ll be happy to once again send it to you. I think your staff doesn\u2019t show that to you.\u201dBondi made it clear with her opening statement that she planned to correct many lies from Democrats in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a critical reminder of our central mission here at the Department of Justice protecting the safety and security of the American people. That is why, even when the government is otherwise shut down because of the Democrats, the department\u2019s law enforcement officers and prosecutors are hard at work, fighting crime, keeping our streets safe and protecting you from the threats, foreign and domestic. When I was confirmed as the 80 seventh attorney general of the United States, I took office with to mangles to in the weapon, is nation of justice and return the department to it\u2019s core mission of fighting violent crime as to ending the weapon possession of justice. We learn that former FBI secretly investigated you and your colleagues why they wanted to take president,\u201d Bondi began.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump off the playing field. They were playing politics with law enforcement powers and will go down as a historic. The trail of public trust, this is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people\u2019s faith in our law enforcement system. We will work to earn that back every single day,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime. While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months we have made tremendous progress towards those ends. Our federal surges in Washington D.C. in memphis are a perfect example of how the Department of Justice should operate week created strong partnerships with local leadership working hand in hand with both cities to send resources where they were needed. Most, the results speak for themselves,\u201d she added.\u201cDespite the unprecedented degree of activism we\u2019ve seen from the lower courts, we have never ignored a court order and why would we we have secured a historic 20 two victories at the Supreme Court alone with more to come,. Our civil rights attorneys are fighting discrimination and anti Semitism. Our criminal attorneys are prosecuting violent criminals and foreign terrorist every single day. I look forward to continuing this work at the Department of Justice and I look forward to testifying before you today,\u201d Bondi added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach dropped a bombshell Wednesday, announcing election fraud charges against Coldwater Mayor Jose (Joe) Ceballos, just one day after voters handed him another term in office.Ceballos, 54, was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t