KS-02: Watkins admits voting at wrong address, but denies intent Read more her
Rep. Steve Watkins denied Tuesday that he blamed his staff for registering him to vote at a Topeka UPS store, but he also described the completion of his voter form as a “collegial effort.”
In a 29-minute interview with The Star, Watkins, R-Kansas, acknowledged he voted in the wrong city council district in 2019 despite claiming no wrongdoing. And he repeatedly sought to tie the felony charges he faces to his GOP primary rival Jake LaTurner.
“I put my mailing address instead of my physical address on a voter registration and inadvertently received a ballot for the incorrect, I believe, Topeka city council race. Now, that’s a mistake not a felony,” Watkins said.
He attributed the use of the mailing address to his time spent overseas, saying “out of habit my address is my mailing address” after “eight years in the sandbox” with Army in Afghanistan and as a security contractor in Iraq during the 2000s.
However, The Star revealed in 2018 that Watkins had never voted in any election until 2017, several years after his service in the Army ended.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article244541302.html#storylink=cpy
