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Kobach touts voter ID success, seeks greater power By John Hanna Associated Press
TOPEKA — Kansas officials certified the results of this month’s general election Thursday amid a renewed debate over the state’s voter identification law and skepticism among even Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s allies about
Board of Canvassers certifies election results proposals to boost his office’s power. Kobach, a conservative Republican and former law professor, is the architect of the ID law, which took effect this year and requires voters to show
1.18 million people who cast ballots. Kobach also said that 306 of those voters took advantage of a provision allowing them to bring valid IDs to election officials after polls closed,
so that their ballots were counted, leaving 532 whose ballots weren’t counted. The secretary of state said his office is investigating whether those voters couldn’t get a valid ID
Turning a warehouse into a home
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photo identification at the polls. He reported Thursday that 838 voters cast provisional ballots because they lacked the proper photo IDs at the polls, or seven-hundredths of 1 percent of the
but has yet to find such a case. That means so far no person truly was blocked from voting by the ID law. “I don’t think we saw people declining to vote for that reason,” Kobach said during a meeting of the Board of Canvassers, which certifies election
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INSIDE
Please see KOBACH, page 2A
REPORT
Driver drunk in disabling accident ——
Student lost legs after being pinned between vehicles Volleyball team set for tournament
By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
The KU women’s volleyball team will take on Cleveland State tonight in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Allen Fieldhouse. Page 1B Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
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LORING HENDERSON, DIRECTOR OF THE LAWRENCE COMMUNITY SHELTER, provides a tour Thursday of the new homeless shelter facility, which is located at 3701 Franklin Park Circle. The shelter, which is still undergoing some finishing construction touches and will not be move-in ready until the end of the year, will be open to the public during an open house from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
It was the foundation of human rights, under threat now as we consider how to cope with the threats which face us in the 21st century.”
To celebrate community support, shelter invites public in for a look
— Sir Robert Worcester on the Magna Carta. Worcester, who graduated from Kansas University in 1955, is on By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com a committee planning events to mark the 800th anniversary of the docuThere will be lots to ment in 2015. Page 4A see at Sunday’s open house for the Lawrence Community Shelter’s soon-to-be-completed new home — everything from a large dining room Facebook.com/LJWorld and kitchen to actual Twitter.com/LJWorld dormitories.
But John Tacha, chairman of the shelter’s board of directors, suspects that he’ll like seeing the smiles inside the building the most. “Seeing the faces of the staff who have been working in small, cramped spaces for so long is what really gets me excited,” Tacha said.
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INDEX Business 8A Classified 1C-6C Comics 9B Deaths 2A Events listings 10A, 2B Horoscope 5C Movies 4A Opinion 9A Puzzles 5C Sports 1B-8B, 10B Television 10A, 2B, 5C Vol.154/No.335 34 pages
Shelter leaders will host an open house from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the shelter’s future home, a converted warehouse building at 3701 Franklin Park Circle. “We’re going to try to answer all the questions people have about what the new shelter is going to look like,” said
Loring Henderson, executive director of the homeless shelter. The space isn’t yet ready to move into. Crews with Lawrencebased B.A. Green Construction are expected to complete work by Dec. 21. Henderson hopes the Please see SHELTER, page 2A
The driver in an Aug. 26 vehicle accident — in which a Kansas University student from Derby lost both of his legs — registered a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit, according to results released by the Lawrence Police Department. A Ford Explorer driven by Kansas University student Julian M. Kuszmaul, 21, of Lawrence, struck and pinned 18-year-old Colby Liston between Kuszmaul’s vehicle and another. The vehicle Liston was standing behind was illegally parked in a driving lane of the 1600 block of Tennessee Street. Test results that Lawrence police recently received showed Kuszmaul had a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 shortly following the accident. The legal limit to drive is 0.08. An officer responding to the 1:30 a.m. accident “immediately observed a strong Please see ACCIDENT, page 2A
OKLAHOMA
Circumstances suspicious in Lawrence woman’s death By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
Police in Oklahoma are trying to get to the bottom of the death of a former Lawrence woman, whose body was found Tuesday in Eufaula, Okla. McIntosh County sheriff’s deputies found the body of 79-year-old Erlene McCune wrapped in a sheet in the garage of her daughter’s home. McIntosh County Sheriff’s Detective Jared West said the daughter, Shelly
Maytubby, 52, removed McCune from a senior living facility in Lawrence operated by Legend Senior Living on Sept. 12. Marla Lopeman, a spokeswoman for Legend Senior Living, confirmed that McCune lived at The Windsor, 3220 Peterson Road in Lawrence, but moved out in September. Family members contacted the sheriff’s office when they were unable to reach McCune, who suffered from dementia. When officers ques-
tioned Maytubby about McCune’s whereabouts, they were told an unusual and unlikely story, West said. Maytubby told police that her mother had met a truck driver named “Santa Claus” in the parking lot of a Dollar General and had run off with the man. “It wasn’t plausible at all,” West said. The cause of death has not been determined, but Maytubby was arrested on charges of unlawfully
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disposing of human remains, obstructing an officer, disrupting an investigation and financial exploitation by a caregiver, West said. Police hope to know a cause of death by the end of the week. When police found McCune’s body, they also found a large amount of cash. “That raised our suspicions,” West said. Officers continue to piece together where the money came from. May-
tubby was to be formally charged Thursday in Oklahoma, West said. McCune was in Lawrence because she had another daughter in the area. Lopeman said McCune’s death has affected many of The Windsor residents, who were friends of McCune. “We’re really saddened to hear the news,” Lopeman said. “It’s tragic.” — Reporter Shaun Hittle can be reached at 832-7173. Follow him at Twitter.com/shaunhittle.