Calvin Hayden (photo, left) is a Kansas sheriff, the chief law enforcement officer of Johnson County.
That county is no backwater. It’s part of the Kansas City metro area, and Kansas’ most heavily populated county. Its sheriff’s department employs nearly 500 deputies.
But the sheriff is crazy. Huffington Post says “for years, he’s pursued a secretive, taxpayer-funded investigation of the 2020 election results in his county” (read story here).
Hayden tells conservative audiences there were “shenanigans” in the 2020 election, but has no evidence. He told people he had a “warrant” to seize the ballots, but that was a lie. The only honest thing he’s said about it is he once admitted he “doesn’t know anything about elections.”
The conservative Heritage Foundation does. It has a database of election crimes, which “lists just one case since 2019” in Hayden’s jurisdiction — this guy. Studies consistently show that voting fraud is very rare. Hayden is peddling a baseless conspiracy theory. The Kansas City Star called him a “threat to the rule of law” and urged him to resign.
Law enforcement’s job is to investigate reported crimes. Would you feel safe with a sheriff who goes trolling for imaginary crimes?