More than 30,000 incomplete voter registrations have piled up in Kansas, most waiting for applicants to submit the now state required “proof of citizenship” documents.
Secretary of State (SOS) Kris Kobach says he knows how to fix the problem. He wants a new rule that allows election officials to toss out uncompleted applications after 90 days. The proposal will be the topic of a hearing this week.
Simple housekeeping, he says.
The wholesale dumping of potential voters, critics say, and for no good reason.
Kansas’ rules on voter ID and proof of citizenship championed by the Republican SOS have stirred up controversy nationally and close to home. Voting rights groups say the regulations muck up a system that wasn’t broken and, in the process, reduce voter participation.
Kobach, who considers himself a crusader for election integrity, says he’s battling voter fraud and ensuring that only U.S. citizens cast ballots in Kansas. Critics are blowing issues way out of proportion, he says. First, Kobach said, his proposal is in no way a “purge” of voters because the applicants aren’t yet on the rolls of registered voters. Counties are keeping incomplete applications indefinitely, Kobach said, and they’re sending out reminders to applicants, many of whom have moved. That’s costly, he said.
Georgia and Arizona also have proof-of-citizenship laws, and they limit the time applications are kept at either 30 days or 45 days, he said. He said applicants can easily complete the registration process, including by fax and electronically. If an incomplete application times out, it’s not a problem to start over, he said.
But the League of Women Voters of Kansas has objections, to put it mildly. “From the league’s perspective,” said Marge Ahrens, Co-President of the Kansas league, “we don’t just throw away people who say they want to vote.” These are citizens who are trying to register, Ahrens said, but they’ve run up against the complexity of the law, which requires documentation such as a birth certificate or passport. The fact that more than 30,000 such applications are pending, with 1,100 added each month, she said, shows that the law is cumbersome.
Doug Bonney, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said election officials have long kept incomplete applications “in suspense,” prior to the new proof-of-citizenship requirements, and there was never a need to clear the records. So why should there be a time limit now that it’s more difficult to register? he asked.
The hearing is set for Wednesday in Topeka. The 90-day rule is administrative, and Kobach has the authority to implement it.
One complication of the state’s proof-of-citizenship law is that federal elections have no such requirement.
Two voters are challenging Kobach’s decision that those who register to vote using a federal form, which doesn’t require proof of citizenship, can’t cast ballots in state and local elections. A Shawnee County district judge last week allowed that lawsuit to go forward.
Earlier this summer, Kobach lost his bid to add the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirements to the federal form. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling against that idea, leaving in place a system in which Kansas voters who register with the federal form can only vote in federal races.
In 2011, the Kansas Legislature passed the Safe and Fair Elections Act, which included a photo ID requirement for voting and proof-of-citizenship rules for voter registration. The latter took effect in January 2013.
New questions arose recently about whether the state’s voter ID law had the effect of suppressing turnout in some areas.
The Kansas advisory committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission announced in late July it would hold hearings early next year on the law, citing a government finding that suggested a reduction in voter turnout in Kansas and Tennessee was attributable to those state’s voter ID laws.
Proof-of-citizenship requirements are a problem for those who must order documents from other states, which takes time and money and for older people who may not have birth certificates.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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