In a significant win for election integrity, Kansas AG Kris Kobach charged Coldwater Mayor Jose “Joe” Ceballos, who is a Mexican citizen and green card holder, with six felonies: three counts of voting without qualification and three of election perjury, for allegedly voting in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 elections.
For context, Ceballos won his election unopposed just one day before charges were brought on November 5, 2025. While Kansas mayors are officially non-partisan, Ceballos is a well-known progressive and often associated with Democrats.
If convicted, Ceballos faces up to 68 months in prison and a fine of up to $200,000. Initially, the City Attorney, Skip Herd, was alerted when the mayor applied for citizenship in February. The Kansas AG reiterated that this scandal erodes public trust, and he thanked Trump’s SAVE program for enabling this discovery.
Explaining the details of the scandal, Skip Herd, Coldwater City Attorney, blasted the alleged criminal. “He’s 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,” Herd noted.
Additionally, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach emphasized the vulnerabilities in our elections. The official declared, “In 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’s a qualified elector or that he is a United States citizen, that the person is telling the truth… In this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that trust.”
Giving thanks to the Trump administration, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab noted, “We now have tools, thanks to the current White House, that we haven’t had in over 10 years that 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’re not a citizen.”
Watch the local media report on the bonkers incident here:
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Kobach issued a press release that provided greater detail on the case. “Voting by noncitizens, including both legal and illegal aliens, is a very real problem. It happens. Every time a noncitizen votes, it effectively cancels out a U.S. citizen’s vote,” the document said.
Continuing, the same source revealed, “I’ve worked with Attorney General Kobach for years on proof of citizenship as a useful tool to root out election crimes. During my time as House Elections Chair, then Secretary Kobach and I fought to pass a proof of citizenship requirement. Instead, we’re left relying on individuals’ word when it comes to verifying citizenship… I’m grateful that President Trump implemented the SAVE program to help states and to prevent situations like this.”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach reiterated these points in a media appearance, where he declared, “In Kansas, it is against the law to vote if you are not a U.S. citizen. We allege that Mr. Ceballos did it multiple times. Noncitizen voting is a real problem. It is not something that happens once in a decade. It is something that happens fairly frequently,” adding, “If a person who is not a U.S. citizen actually ends up on the ballot for an office, then a U.S. citizen lost the opportunity to obtain that office, so it’s the same point.”