Trump alleges progressive group offered $5 gift cards for votes in Kansas

Allegations that a progressive group offered gift cards to voters in exchange for casting ballots emerged in Kansas two days before the US midterm elections. Donald Trump called it criminal conduct by the left and urged the public to come forward with information.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Sunday (local time) that activists from a progressive group had been caught on camera in Kansas offering gift cards to voters to encourage them to vote.

"We have received a report from the Kansas state government that a radical left PAC operative was caught on camera going door to door in the Wichita area, offering gift cards in exchange for votes," Trump said.

"We have photographic evidence," Trump added. "This is criminal activity." Trump called on citizens with relevant information to report it immediately to the Kansas attorney general's office.

The Kansas attorney general's office said it had already sent a cease-and-desist order to the civic group Bluestem Kansas, directing it to immediately stop offering anything of value to induce voters to cast ballots.

The attorney general's office also ordered the group to preserve records and communications related to its canvassing activities.

The action followed a complaint filed Saturday by a resident who said a person identifying as a Bluestem Kansas activist had offered a $5 gift card in exchange for a vote.

Both federal law and Kansas state law prohibit offering or promising money or other items of value in exchange for a vote.

Bluestem Kansas is a nonprofit organization whose stated mission includes promoting policy awareness on local issues such as education and health care, and encouraging voter participation. Whether the Democratic Party or any affiliated political action committee was directly involved in the gift card allegations has not been confirmed.

The allegations surfaced amid a string of controversies over election integrity across the United States ahead of the midterms.

The Trump administration has repeatedly raised concerns about noncitizen voting and ballot-counting irregularities. More recently, allegations emerged that Democratic operatives in Alaska had arranged for a candidate with the same name as a Republican incumbent to run in a Senate race.