Kansas AG Kobach Orders Group to Stop Offering Voters Gift Cards

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has ordered a voter outreach group called Bluestem Kansas to stop offering voters incentives tied to voting, three days before Tuesday’s general election, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.

The cease-and-desist letter, sent Saturday, Oct. 31, demands that the group “immediately stop offering voters incentives tied to voting in the November 3 general election,” the release said. Kobach’s office said the action followed evidence it received the same day from a Kansas voter who said a canvasser offered a $5 gift card. According to the release, the canvasser identified himself as working with Bluestem Kansas.

Kansas AG Kris Kobach ordered Bluestem Kansas to stop offering gift cards to voters on Saturday.

Per the AG's office, a Kansas voter reported a Bluestem canvasser offered a $5 gift card tied to voting in the November 3 election.

Election bribery is a severity level 7 felony in…

— The Scoop (@TheScoop_US) November 1, 2026

Kobach did not hold back in his statement. “I never thought that a group in Kansas would be so brazen as to go door-to-door three days before a general election offering voters monetary incentives,” he said in the release. “This sounds like Chicago in the 1950s, not Kansas in the 2020s. As long as I am attorney general, those who violate our election laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

What the law says

The attorney general’s office cited K.S.A. 25-2409, which defines election bribery as giving, offering or agreeing to give a benefit in exchange for voting at a public election. The office said that is a severity level 7 nonperson felony in Kansas. The release also pointed to federal law, 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), which the office said makes it a crime to pay or offer to pay anyone for voting in an election that includes federal candidates.

Salina311 noted that the same Kansas statute allows a business or organization to give an item worth less than $3 to anyone who says they voted, regardless of how they voted. The reported offer in this case was $5, according to the attorney general’s office.

Records ordered preserved

The letter also directs Bluestem Kansas to preserve all documents, communications and records tied to its canvassing and to any offer of gift cards or other incentives, the release said. That includes emails, text messages, scripts, training materials, payment records and communications with vendors and canvassers, according to the attorney general’s office. KCTV5 reported the same list of records in its coverage of the letter.

Kobach’s office is asking the public for help. Any Kansan who was offered a gift card, cash or any other incentive by Bluestem Kansas or its canvassers is asked to call the office at 785-296-2215, according to the release. WIBW reported that investigators want the time and location of any contact, what the canvasser asked the voter to do, and any photos of the exchange.

What is not yet known

The announcement describes a single reported offer, according to Salina311. The outlet reported that the release does not say where in Kansas the offer was made or whether the voter was asked to support any candidate, and that no charges had been announced as of Sunday night. KCTV5 reported that Bluestem had not responded to its request for comment. A cease-and-desist letter is a demand from the attorney general, not a court finding that the group broke the law.

Kobach appeared Sunday night with President Trump at the president’s rally at Salina Regional Airport, where he spoke briefly about immigration and election security, Salina311 reported. The outlet said he did not discuss the gift-card case in the remarks it recorded.

Kansas polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and in-person advance voting ends at noon Monday, according to the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office as cited by Salina311.

Sources

• Kansas Attorney General press release (Oct. 31, 2026)
• KCTV5
• WIBW
• Salina311

Reporting by Daily Beltway.