Well, it seems like Sam Brownback has more to worry about than his bully brother in Kansas.

Now he’s got to worry about people who can do math.

Wichita State University’s Beth Clarkson (who is also chief statistician of WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research) discovered “odd patterns” in Kansas electoral voting records, so she requested public docs to help her get to the bottom of things — requests that state officials ignored, dodged, and stalled.

Professor Clarkson is asking to see the paper tapes from the voting machines. They do not tell how someone voted, but “merely timestamped votes with associated metadata.”No can do, says Kansas. The reason?

Because the software is proprietary, even elections officials can’t examine it and postelection audits can’t be done, according to Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting Foundation, a nonprofit agency whose mission is to safeguard elections in the digital age.

Okay, so we privatize elections and end up with private elections.

And if you didn’t click the link about Brownback’s brother, you missed some of the best purple prose I’ve ever read.

Adversaries say he has woven a liquor-infused tapestry of fear colored by intimidation, abuse and lies. The saga features stalking, death threats, trespassing, drive-by gunfire, massive explosions, cattle theft, loan defaults, hit-and-run driving and marital strife. Linn County Sheriff’s Department files bulge with complaints about him.

That’s not a dude you’d want to mess with.