Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, put forward his new guidelines for handling Kansas voter registration. The measure offers a new location for more than 30,000 voters that remain on the Kansas suspended list: the trash can.
Byran Lowry, reporter for the Wichita Eagle strikes right to the heart of the issue:
http://www.kansas.com/...
That list ballooned to more than 20,000 voters during this past election. A proposed rule change would cut that number dramatically.
If a county election official decided that a voter’s application was incomplete, the voter would have 90 days to provide the missing documents or information. Counties would be instructed to cancel a voter’s application after 90 days if the missing materials are not provided and the voter’s name would be removed from the suspended voter list.
This policy is the result of Kansas work on dual-track voting, a method by which voters are only able to vote in state elections if they have completed extra paperwork regarding paperwork proof of citizenship.
Jim Ward, Representative of Wichita countered today, noting that such rules were "arbitrary and capricious", with many questions about how this policy would be handled and if individuals could be properly notified.
In a phone conversation with Representative Ward, I was informed:
The real issue is the 5th Circuit ruling in Texas. Secretary of State Kobach wants to believe that because Kansas has 8 acceptable forms of ID it instantly makes us immune to the problem Texas ran into.. he's just wrong. We're going to waste tons of money fighting this completely arbitrary rule made only to convenience the Secretary of State
Secretary of State Kobach has went on the record calling this a "common sense" rules change he looks to implement prior to the 2016 election.
Secretary of State Kobach's decision to suspend all these voters, however, will put at test the Dual-Track voting system in Kansas..
http://m.ljworld.com/...
Wichita — Kansas and Arizona residents can register to vote using a federal form without having to provide proof of citizenship, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Kansas and Arizona cannot demand federal election officials to help them enforce their laws requiring new voters to submit a birth certificate, passport or other papers documenting U.S. citizenship. Most new voters use a state voter registration form requiring such documents. The national form requires only that voters sign a sworn statement saying they are citizens.
In light of the 10th Circuit ruling, the state cannot limit access to the federal ballot for US House, Senate, and President based on these standards. Kris Kobach, however, has long maintained that the state has the right to offer dual track voting:
that your right to vote in a federal election does not guarantee your right to vote in a state election.
The state of Texas also found themselves running afoul of the courts in their attempt to stop access to the ballot box.
http://thinkprogress.org/...
One day before the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the country wielded that law to strike down a Texas voter suppression law. A unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an opinion written by a George W. Bush appointee, held that Texas’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act and must, at the very least, be significantly weakened. Though the court did not accept every argument raised against the state’s voter ID law, and its opinion does not go nearly as far as a trial judge’s decision which also struck down this law, it is a significant blow to the state’s efforts to make voting more difficult.
This dual-track voting system is already a target of at least one lawsuit in the state, where advocates argue it is a chance to confuse voters as to how to register and whether or not they are registered. Other groups, like the League of Women Voters, have noted that it could result in confusion at polling places should a voter only be allowed to vote in federal, not state races.
Kansas & Missouri Kossacks
Contact the Daily Kos group Kansas & Missouri Kossacks by kosmail (members of Daily Kos only).
Contact Chris Reeves with news, tips, and/or information by email. tmservo433@gmail.com
Follow Chris on Twitter @tmservo433.
If you would like to publish or republish a Daily Kos diary to the group Kansas & Missouri Kossacks, please let us know by kosmail or email.
If you have a location or story that needs support from Connect! Unite! Act!, please let us know by kosmail or email.
|