The American Civil Liberties Union today notified Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach that it will file a lawsuit in 90 days if the state doesn’t address the issue of approximately 14,000 voter registration applications that are in limbo. “Kansans are simply trying to exercise their constitutional right to vote,” said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “This is the most fundamental freedom we have as Americans, yet Secretary of State Kobach is blocking thousands upon thousands of Kansans from their rightful participation in the political process. This is un-American, unconstitutional and must end immediately.” The dispute is over thousands of voter registration applications in Kansas since January when a new state law took effect that requires new registrations to include proof of U.S. citizenship with a document such as a birth certificate or passport.
CLU letter to Kobach ( .PDF )
The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri alleges that Kansas has failed to register thousands of those applicants due to a faulty computer system. These are people who fully complied with all legal requirements when they applied for driver’s licenses and voter registration, the group said.
In all, approximately 14,000 registrations are in “suspense,” meaning that they are not completed. That total represents about one-third of the voter registrations this year, officials said.
Kansas also has defied a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Arizona case by continuing to demand documentary proof of citizenship from individuals applying to register with the federal voter registration form, the ACLU said. The federal form does not require documentary proof of citizenship, but instead requires a signed, sworn statement of citizenship.
Kobach, a Republican who pushed for the proof of citizenship law, did not immediately return a telephone call for comment. In the past, he has said the Kansas proof of citizenship law is constitutional.
Full Article: ACLU notifies Kobach of intention to file voting rights lawsuit / LJWorld.com.
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A News Service of the Verified Voting Foundation
