ELLINWOOD — Ellinwood Chamber of Commerce Director J. Basil Dannebohm welcomed the group of 49  to a Town Hall meeting with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Saturday.
Kobach said that he enjoyed visiting Ellinwood and that people there are living the American Dream where one can leave doors unlocked and enjoy a well-kept community.
“The town looks great,” he said. Kobach said the key to small town growth is small businesses. “A small business can be anywhere.”
He said there are a lot of things going on in Topeka and that you used to have to drive to Topeka to file documents to open a small business, but now that can be done on the internet.
Kobach is a strong advocate of state’s rights. Now, he said the federal government is in every aspect of our lives. The originators of the Constitution did not envision that, he said.
“We’re not living under the republic the Constitution describes,” he said.
The lesser prairie chicken has been listed as threatened. Kobach says that is outrageous and that the federal government seeks to regulate every species under the sun.
 He said he is a hunter of prairie chickens, and they have nothing to do with interstate commerce. The state intends to set up a court case.
“States have to start to fight back,” he said. A bill declaring the federal government has no authority to regulate prairie chickens was just signed by Gov. Sam Brownback on Friday.
A repeated theme throughout his speech was the loss of state’s rights.
Voter fraud is a very real problem in Kansas, he said.  Election crimes have been documented across the state—from fraudulent registrations, to vote-by-mail fraud, according to his web site.
Kobach is married and has four young daughters. He works full-time for the state and runs a part-time law office.
 He said, “I like to spend my spare time working for other states,” on stopping voter fraud and immigration issues.