Kansas to Proceed with Two-Track Registration This Fall
[Image courtesy of 2esoe1011]
A Kansas judge has ruled that the state can move forward with its plans to create a two-track registration system as part of a new proof of citizenship requirement currently being challenged in federal court. The Associated Press has more:
A Shawnee County judge cleared the way Friday for Kansas to use a dual voting system to help enforce its proof-of-citizenship rule for new voters, suggesting that doing otherwise could taint the state’s August primary election.
District Court Judge Franklin Theis’ ruling was a victory for Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a conservative Republican who champions the citizenship rule as an anti-election fraud measure. Critics contend it will suppress the vote.
Theis rejected the American Civil Liberties Union’s request to block a policy Kobach outlined last month in instructing county officials on handling ballots from voters who registered using a national form that does not require providing a birth certificate, passport or some other documentation of their U.S. citizenship. Kobach advised counties to set aside the ballots and count only their votes in congressional races.
The ACLU sought to force election officials to count all votes from such ballots. The group initially sued Kobach last year on behalf of two voters and the gay-rights group Equality Kansas over the possibility of a dual system, arguing that Kobach has no legal authority to do it. The group filed a request last month for a temporary injunction.
The national form has voters sign a statement that they are U.S. citizens, without requiring papers. Kansas and Arizona sued the federal government to force it to add specific instructions for their states on their proof-of-citizenship requirements. That case is before a federal appeals court, leaving the treatment of voters registering with the national form in flux.
The judge cited the possibility for confusion in allowing the two-track system to proceed:
Theis said he could see problems in the Aug. 5 primary if he granted the ACLU’s request. If the federal courts sided with Kansas and Arizona, he said, there would be no way to go back and remove the small number of potentially illegal votes from the totals.
“There are some cases where the cure is worse than the disease, and I think what you’re asking me to do would create a mess that couldn’t be fixed,” Theis said in court.
The registrations of more than 19,500 prospective Kansas voters are on hold because they haven’t yet documented their citizenship. Kobach said in court Friday that probably fewer than 200 of them used the federal form to register.
The judge directed Kobach to instruct election officials to notify the small group of voters that if they didn’t provide proof of citizenship, only the votes in congressional races would be counted.
But otherwise, the judge said, “What he’s done is not unreasonable and not unfair.”
Not surprisingly, Kobach welcomed the ruling and the ACLU vowed to fight on – but at least one member of Kobach’s own party wasn’t pleased:
Scott Morgan, Kobach’s opponent in the GOP August primary, called Kobach’s two-tier voting system “a solution designed to fix a problem that didn’t exist in the first place.”
“Whatever the merits of the lawsuit, it is a sad day for Kansas when a Secretary of State ‘wins’ by being able to create two classes of Kansas voters,” Morgan said in a statement. “A system that allows Kansans to vote for federal elections but not have their votes counted in their own state elections is not a system that reflects Kansas values of common sense.”
This story is far from over; the federal court is still wrestling with its own version of the case, which will almost certainly make it back to the U.S. Supreme Court as early as next year. It also remains to be seen whether opposition to the law has any effect on the outcome of the Secretary of State’s race in August or November.
It’s still a big story … stay tuned!