by Mary Rupert
The ACLU has filed suit against Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, claiming that thousands of Kansas residents who registered through the motor-voter program are being prevented from exercising their right to vote.
The Fish v. Kobach lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.
Micah Kubic, executive director of the Kansas ACLU, said the lawsuit argues that the additional documents required by the state are in violation of the federal motor-voter act, the Motor Vehicle Registration Act. These additional documents required of those who register to vote at the Kansas Division of Vehicles are in violation of federal law and are prohibiting people from exercising their right to vote, Kubic said.
Kubic estimated about 30,000 potential voters were affected by these regulations, and most of them were from Sedgwick, Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
The National Voter Registration Act, a federal law, was to have made voter registration easier, but instead, Kansas residents are being told to supply more documents to prove their citizenship, according to Kubic. Some potential voters were not aware that they were on a voter suspension list.
Kobach’s response: ‘Political motives’
The secretary of state’s office released this response attributed to Kris Kobach: “The recent lawsuit filed by the ACLU is just another attempt to twist the words of federal law in order to achieve their political motives. The claim that thousands of potential voters have been blocked from registering as a result of the Kansas proof of citizenship law is entirely false.
“Kansas’s law, which was passed by a large majority, ensures that every person who registers to vote is a United States citizen,” Kobach’s statement continued. “This law has prevented numerous aliens from registering, and that ensures the integrity of our voter rolls. Furthermore, the ACLU lawsuit filed today raises the same legal claims that Paul Davis raised in his lawsuit in September. This is essentially the same lawsuit repackaged in different wrapping. Both are weak and have no support in the law.”
ACLU says Kansas is ‘extremely challenged’ in voter rights
“Kansas has created a system of voter restrictions impairing people’s right to vote that is nearly unparalleled in the country today,” Kubic said. “It has adopted numerous steps making it harder to vote, harder to register, and suppress the vote. Kansas is extremely challenged in voter rights.”
He said a study has determined that younger and older people were the most disproportionately affected by the requirements to provide additional documentation.
Older voters often struggle to meet the additional documentation requirements, as some cannot locate their birth certificates, and as they age, no longer apply for passports, he said.
Younger voters applying for the first time may not have their birth certificates – they may be stashed away at a parent’s home, or the youth are at school and the documents are not readily convenient, Kubic said. Many younger people are not at the age where international travel is a possibility for them, he added.
Voters who were in the military sometimes are affected. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Ralph Ortiz, a U.S. military veteran of 13 years who wanted to make a permanent home in Kansas, but was barred from registering to vote by the proof-of-citizenship documentary requirement, according to the lawsuit.
Steven Wayne Fish, another plaintiff, lives in Lawrence, Kan., and was born on a U.S. military base in Illinois that has closed. He moved to Kansas as a young child. When he tried to register to vote in 2014 at a DMV office, he brought with him his driver’s license and completed paperwork. Since he did not bring documentary proof of citizenship, he was placed on a “suspense” list for voter registration. He looked for and did not find his birth certificate, and he did not know how to obtain another one, according to the lawsuit. He did not try to vote in the November 2014 election, as he understood that his voter registration would not be considered complete without the documentary proof of citizenship that he did not have, the lawsuit stated.
Voter fraud in Kansas?
On Jan. 25, Kobach announced that he was prosecuting six voter fraud cases in Kansas. At the time of the announcement, one person had pleaded guilty. Kobach proposed a change in Kansas law to allow his office to audit voting equipment in all counties.
The ACLU’s Kubic said these cases did not concern those who registered through the motor-voter act and were on the waiting list, but these cases concerned people who were already registered. Some were alleged to have voted more than once.
“The level of voter fraud that takes place in this state is minimal,” Kubic said.
“The folks on the other side claim it (the additional documentation) is necessary to stop voter fraud,” Kubic said. “The facts are that 30,000 people are being stopped from their right to exercise their right to vote because six people are alleged to have committed voter fraud.”
Next steps for the lawsuit and voter registration
After filing the lawsuit today, the ACLU’s next step will be to wait for the secretary of state’s official response in court, Kubic said.
“We’re hopeful it will move quickly, speedily through the process,” he said.
The deadline for voter registration is July 12 in advance of the Aug. 2 primary election this year.
Often, current laws do not account for an increasingly mobile society, particularly among youth who may move frequently. People do not get to vote if they move after the voter registration deadline.
Another bill has been filed in the Kansas Legislature that would make it easier for people to register to vote, Kubic said.
“I think we ought to do whatever we can to make voting easier rather than harder,” Kubic said. “That includes election-day voter registration, where folks can register up to the day of the vote,” he said.
Under one proposal, registration could take place on election day at one table, where documentation would be received, then voters could proceed to another table to vote, he said. So far, that process is not allowed in Kansas.
The ACLU has put a copy of its complaint online at https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/fish-v-kobach-complaint.