Jose Ceballos, the 54-year-old mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, was charged shortly after his reelection last week for voting illegally.
Ceballos was charged by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach a day after his reelection, after it was alleged that he voted illegally in multiple elections as a non-citizen.
Kobach claimed Ceballos is not a US citizen, and therefore does not have the right to vote.
The punitive cost of voting without US citizenship
The mayor, who was first elected in 2021, was charged with three counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury for the November 2022, November 2023, and August 2024 elections, according to court documents.
Ceballos is set to appear in court on December 3 and faces more than 5 years in prison and $200,000 in fines if convicted.
"In Kansas, it is against the law to vote if you are not a US citizen. We allege that Mr. Ceballos did it multiple times," Kobach said.
While not a citizen, the Attorney General said Ceballos is a legal permanent resident of the US.
"In large part, our system right now is based on trust," Kobach told the press last week. "Trust that when the person signs the registration or signs the poll books 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."