Lawrence Journal-World 11-22-14

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SATURDAY • NOVEMBER 22 • 2014

Lawmakers A ‘special and sustainable vision’ lobby to merge city, state voting BAKER UNIVERSITY

Proponents say doing so would boost election turnout, but critics argue such a move could complicate the process By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo

DR. LYNNE MURRAY JOINS HER HUSBAND, JEFF MURRAY, after Murray was sworn in as the president of Baker University during a small, private ceremony Friday in the Lincoln Kemper Parlor at Parmenter Hall on Baker’s Baldwin City campus. During the ceremony, Murray was presented the school’s presidential medallion, which signals the official transfer of power.

Murray sworn in as university’s new leader By Elvyn Jones Twitter: @LJWorld

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ynne Murray was formally sworn in Friday as the 29th president of Baker University in a small, by-invitation-only ceremony on the Baldwin City campus. About 20 Baker administrators, faculty, students and board of trustees members attended the 25-minute ceremony.

Pat Long, who reworn the medallion on hapNext up: tired as Baker president py occasions over the past Lynne Murray in June, was on hand to 50 years, and the symbolic will outline her present her successor transfer of presidential auvision for Baker with the school’s presithority was an example of University at an dential medallion before one such occasion. April 16, 2015, Board of Trustees ChairIn brief remarks, Murconvocation. man Richard Howell ray said she accepted the swore in Murray. medallion with the comBefore draping the medallion mitment to carry on the legacy of around Murray’s shoulders, Long Please see MURRAY, page 2A said that Baker presidents have

Topeka — During the 2013 municipal elections in Lawrence, only about 17 percent of registered voters turned out to vote. And that election included a ballot issue for a $92.5 million school bond issue. That’s not unusual in KanLocal sas or in other states where elections city and school board races are held on a completely need to keep different cycle from federal their own and state races and where lo- identity.” cal races are conducted on a nonpartisan basis. Rep. Steve Huebert, R- — Lawrence Valley Center, believes it’s Mayor Mike Amyx time to abandon that system and move municipal elections to November, combining them with the higher profile state and federal races that generate more turnout. “Plain and simple, turnout for the current system is pitiful, and it gets worse every two years,” Huebert said. “We need to either figure out a way to increase turnout for the current system or move the elections.” Over the past five years, no fewer than 10 bills have been offered in the Legislature to

Please see VOTING, page 2A

Kobach renews push for more power By John Hanna Associated Press

Topeka — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Friday that next year he’ll revive a proposal to give his office the power to prosecute election fraud cases, though he could face bipartisan skepti-

First bid to prosecute election fraud failed in 2013 cism from legislators. Kobach had pushed the idea after taking office in 2011, and his efforts to win legislative approval of the idea fell just short of passage two years later, even though fel-

low Republicans controlled the Legislature. Kobach won a second, four-year term in this month’s elections with 59 percent of the vote. He persuaded legislators to enact a 2012 law requiring all voters

to show photo identification at the polls and a 2013 statute requiring new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship to register. But the secretary of state’s Please see KOBACH, page 2A

Journal-World File Photo

INSIDE

Warming Business Classified Comics Deaths

High: 61

SECRETARY OF STATE KRIS KOBACH speaks to the media after winning re-election Nov. 4 at a Kansas Republican Party gathering in Topeka. Kobach is pressing for expanded powers for his office to prosecute election fraud cases.

Low: 47

Today’s forecast, page 10A

2A 6C-10C 9A 2A

Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles

7A, 2C Society 4B Sports 8A Television 4B

7A 1C-5C 10A, 2C

Same-sex marriage

Vol.156/No.326 24 pages

A lawyer suing to overturn Kansas’ same-sex marriage ban has added winning state benefits for married gay couples to the lawsuit. Page 3A

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