The ACLU of Kansas will hold a statewide telephone town hall Sept. 27 to inform Kansas residents about their voting rights in advance of election day.
The event will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, on National Voter Registration Day. In Kansas, the last day to register to vote before the general election is Oct. 18.
There may be some confusion on the part of voters this year about whether their registration is valid. Two cases are currently in court that could affect registration in Kansas. The ACLU has been challenging state laws requiring voters to provide documented proof of citizenship.
According to DeAnn Smith, director of communications for the ACLU of Kansas, the ACLU was in Shawnee County District Court Sept. 21 in a Kansas case challenging a dual voter registration system. There also is a lawsuit pending before the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that the ACLU won and that was appealed.
In July, Kansas issued a rule for voters who registered at motor vehicle offices without providing proof of citizenship that would count their votes for federal contests only, not for state and local contests. The ACLU sued, and a district court judge blocked the rule. Kansas was required to count the state and local votes in the primary.
“At this point this week, the decisions we won previously are still in effect for November,” Smith said. “We would hope to get favorable rulings in the coming days.”
The telephone town hall’s moderator will be former Kansas insurance commissioner Sandy Praeger. Panelists will be Marge Ahrens, state president of the League of Women Voters; Cheryl Brown Henderson of the Brown Foundation, whose parents were involved in the landmark case leading to desegregation of schools; and Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas.
About 20,000 Kansas households will be invited to participate in the telephone town hall, according to the ACLU.
According to an ACLU spokesman, the laws passed since the last presidential election primarily hurt low-income communities, the young and old, and communities of color, and it is important for citizens to be informed in order to exercise their right to vote.