Notorious Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach apparently can't even perform the basics of his job—correctly inform people how to register to vote. The state’s Spanish-language voter guide relayed incorrect information about both the registration deadline and acceptable forms of ID for proving one’s citizenship.
Daily Kos diarist Chris Reeves first flagged the major discrepancy last week between the English and Spanish-language versions of the voter guide: One said voters "must be registered 21 days before" the election, while the other stipulated "15 días," or days, prior to the election. You'll be shocked to learn that 21 days, the English version, is correct, which means anyone following the Spanish-language version might easily miss the registration deadline. (Reeves also posted the story in Spanish.)
The Spanish-language instructions also conveniently failed to inform voters that using a passport is an acceptable form of ID for proof of citizenship. Kobach's office is now covering its tracks, reports Caitlin MacNeal:
Craig McCullah, the official in charge of publications for the Kansas secretary of state, claimed responsibility and said that the office would correct the errors, according to the Kansas City Star.
"It was an administrative error that I am diligently working to fix," he said.
Diligence is what most people put in on the front end of a project. "Retroactively" is a more appropriate adverb here.
Kobach, of course, has a longstanding history of pushing a racist agenda, from talking to white nationalist groups, to authoring Arizona's nativist "papers please" law, to actively working to suppress the vote of people of color and Latino voters, in particular. Oh, and anyone who challenges his voter ID policy is a “communist.”
