Kansas: Thousands of voters in limbo after Kansas demands proof they’re American | Reuters

After moving to Kansas, Tad Stricker visited a state motor vehicle office to perform what he thought was the routine task of getting a new driver’s license and registering to vote. It was a familiar procedure for Stricker, 37, who has moved from state to state frequently in his work as a hotel manager. He filled out a voter registration form and got his driver’s license. He was not asked for more documents, he said. So he was stunned when he tried to cast a ballot in November 2014 and was told he was not on the voter rolls. A month later, a letter from the state said why: His registration had been placed “in suspense” because he had failed to meet a state requirement he did not know about – proving he was an American. Spurred by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a national leader in pushing for anti-immigration and voting changes, more than 36,000 Kansas residents have joined Stricker in limbo since early 2013 under a state law that raises a new and higher barrier to voting in the United States: proof of citizenship.

Kansas: Judge Rejects Kobach’s Request For Delay In Voting Rights Case | KCUR

While giving him two more weeks to comply, a federal judge let Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach know that she would brook no further delays in carrying out her order to restore 18,000 Kansas residents to the voter rolls. In a harshly worded order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson rejected Kobach’s claim that compliance with the court’s May 17 order would cause voter confusion and lead to “irreparable harm.” Kobach did not return a call seeking comment. Robinson’s latest ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters of Kansas on behalf of several individual plaintiffs challenging Kansas’ policy of requiring people who register to vote at DMV offices to provide proof of citizenship.

Kansas: Kobach appeals order to register thousands of voters | The Kansas City Star

Secretary of State Kris Kobach asked a federal appeals court Friday to delay a judge’s order to add thousands of Kansas residents to voting rolls for federal elections after they didn’t provide proof of citizenship when registering at motor vehicle offices. Kobach, a Kansas Republican, told the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that the process would be administratively burdensome and involve thousands of hours of work by election officials. He’s asking for a stay while he appeals the decision. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of Kansas voters, is opposing the delay. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued the preliminary injunction Tuesday after finding more than 18,000 eligible voters would be disenfranchised in the upcoming federal elections under the Kansas law. She put her order on hold, but only until May 31, so the state could appeal.

Kansas: Kobach changing interagency policies for Kansas voter registration | Associated Press

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has told a federal court that he is changing interagency policies to improve the state’s ability to verify proof of citizenship for people who register to vote at motor vehicle offices. The notice, filed shortly before midnight Wednesday, comes a day after a federal court ruled thousands of Kansas residents who did not provide such documents must be added to voter rolls for federal elections. The judge stayed her ruling until May 31 so the state could appeal, which Kobach has said he plans to do. In his court filing, Kobach contends that the new policies were being implemented prior to Tuesday’s ruling. One policy says motor vehicle offices accept and scan documents proving U.S. citizenship. Another change gives the secretary of state’s office and election officials in all 105 counties Internet access to check whether motor vehicle offices possess such documents.

Kansas: Judge rules Kobach must register 18,000 suspended Kansas voters | The Wichita Eagle

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to register about 18,000 rejected voters who filed applications at Department of Motor Vehicles offices but didn’t provide the proof of citizenship Kansas law requires. Kobach said he’ll file an emergency appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Judge Julie Robinson ruled the Kansas proof-of-citizenship law conflicts with the federal motor-voter act, which was passed by Congress to make it easier to vote by requiring motor-vehicle offices to also offer voting registration. Robinson approved a preliminary injunction requiring Kobach to register prospective voters who were rejected since 2013 because they didn’t file documents proving their citizenship. They could vote in federal elections – U.S. House, Senate and the presidency – in this election cycle. The case centers on a Kansas law Kobach authored that requires applicants to provide documented citizenship proof. For most voters, that means either a passport or birth certificate – along with proof of marriage- and divorce-related name changes for women.

Kansas: Judge slams Kansas voter ID law’s “magnitude of harm” | Associated Press

A judge said Tuesday that Kansas can’t require people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections at motor vehicle offices. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ruled that the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirements likely violate a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires only “minimal information” to determine a voter’s eligibility. She ordered Kansas to register thousands of voters whose paperwork is on hold because they did not comply with the requirement. But she put her preliminary injunction on hold until May 31 to give the state a chance to appeal. The state immediately said it would appeal. Unless a higher court halts Robinson’s order before the end of the month, it would take effect then, clearing the way for those residents to cast a ballot in the upcoming federal elections.

Kansas: Johnson County election process adds tech upgrades with iPads | The Kansas City Star

Voters in Johnson County, get your index fingers ready. You’ll be signing your name on an iPad when you show up at the polls for the primary and general elections this year. The voting process will go further into the digital age this year with new hardware and software to replace the big poll books the election commission has used for decades. Poll books hold a list of voters for each precinct. One of the first tasks of voting involves telling a poll worker your name to be sure you’re in the right place, then signing under the ruler in the poll book to record that you’ve voted. That will change this year because the county elections commission is updating its equipment, moving more of it into an electronic system. The Johnson County Commission on Thursday approved a measure to budget $936,000 to replace of administrative software and buy iPad Air 2 tablets so they can be in place by July for advance voting in the August primary. The county already had about $836,000 in an account reserved for new equipment. The action adds $100,000 to that.

Kansas: Prosecutor Looking Into Election Official’s Conduct | Associated Press

A Kansas prosecutor is looking into allegations of misuse of public funds against a top U.S. election executive when he was a county election commissioner in the state, two county officials confirmed Monday. Johnson County spokeswoman Sharon Watson said that the county had concerns over the findings of an audit completed after Brian Newby left Kansas to take a job as executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in November last year. The federal commission was created in part to help make voting easier but advocates have said Newby has worked for restrictions. “It was appropriate for us to inform the district attorney of what we were finding in the audit and provide him with that information,” Watson said.

Kansas: Wichita man pleads guilty in Kansas voter fraud case | The Wichita Eagle

Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Wednesday secured his fourth voter fraud conviction in a case against a Wichita man accused of double voting in Kansas and Colorado at least twice – and Kobach said he plans to file more cases soon. “Stay tuned. We expect that we will be filing some additional cases in the very near future,” Kobach said in an interview after Ron Weems pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts in Sedgwick County District Court and agreed to pay $5,500 in fines. Weems, 77, is the latest Kansan to be convicted of election crimes since the Legislature granted Kobach’s office prosecutorial authority over such allegations last July.

Kansas: Six years in advance, Kansas officials gear up for 2022 redistricting | Lawrence Journal World

Kansas lawmakers won’t have to redraw congressional and legislative district maps for another six years, but state and federal officials aren’t waiting that long to get ready for the process. Officials from the U.S. Census Bureau met Tuesday with staff from the Legislature’s nonpartisan Research Department to review the process they’ll use and get familiar with the types of data and computer software that will be essential in the next round of redistricting. “It’s a long process, so we want to get information out early so folks can start preparing whatever material they need — geographic information; software — so they can start thinking about how they’re going to implement the program when it comes time to actually start redistricting,” said Michael Ratcliffe, the Census Bureau’s assistant division chief for geographic standards in Washington.

Kansas: ACLU: Two-Thirds of New Kansas Voter Registrations on Hold | Associated Press

Voting rolls in Kansas are in “chaos” because of the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirements, the American Civil Liberties Union has argued in a court document, noting that about two-thirds of new voter registration applications submitted during a three-week period in February are on hold. Kansas is fending off multiple legal challenges from voting rights activists, and just months before the state’s August primary, the status of the “dual registration” system remains unclear. Federal judges in separate voter-registration lawsuits unfolding in Kansas and Washington, D.C., could rule at any time. There’s also greater urgency because registrations typically surge during an election year. Kansas is one of four states, along with Georgia, Alabama and Arizona, to require documentary proof of citizenship — such as a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers — to register to vote. Under Kansas’ challenged system, voters who registered using a federal form, which hadn’t required proof of U.S. citizenship, could only vote in federal races and not in state or local races. Kansas says it will keep the dual voting system in place for upcoming elections if the courts allow its residents to register to vote either with a federal form or at motor vehicle offices without providing proof of citizenship.

Kansas: ACLU asks federal court to block Kansas voter ID law | The Fiscal Times

The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday will seek to block a Kansas state law that requires people to prove American citizenship if they want to register to vote while applying for a driver’s license. The civil rights group will ask a federal judge in Kansas City, Kansas, to issue a preliminary injunction pending the outcome of a lawsuit the group filed in February. The ACLU claims Kansas is making illegal demands for additional proof of citizenship, violating the so-called Motor-Voter Law that Congress passed in 1993 to boost voter registration for federal elections by allowing voters to register at motor vehicle departments. The Kansas law requiring documents like a birth certificate or U.S. passport for voter registration, which took effect Jan. 1, 2013, is one of numerous voter ID laws passed by Republican-led state legislatures in recent years. The ACLU alleges that Kansas goes beyond what is required by federal law.

Kansas: Kris Kobach defends prosecution of voter fraud cases in Kansas | The Kansas City Star

With the recent dismissal of a voter fraud case against a former Olathe woman, Secretary of State Kris Kobach has secured just one conviction in his effort to crack down on illegal voting in Kansas. But more convictions are coming, Kobach told The Star on Tuesday. He is expecting a guilty plea in a voter fraud case by Friday and another by the end of the month. The conservative Republican pushed for legislation last year that gave him the authority to prosecute voter fraud. Gov. Sam Brownback signed the measure last summer, making Kobach the only secretary of state in the nation with such power. At the time, Kobach said he had identified more than 100 potential instances of double voting, casting ballots in the same election in different jurisdictions. Kobach announced three voter fraud cases last October and three more in January. One of the October cases resulted in a guilty plea in December, and one was dismissed last Friday.

Kansas: Errors in Kansas’ Spanish voting guide include wrong registration deadline | The Kansas City Star

Spanish-language voter guides distributed by the Kansas secretary of state’s office did not match the English-language version and contained errors that could have resulted in people being unable to register and vote. The errors added fuel to complaints that Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s voter registration policies pose hurdles for some voters, including minorities. Ongoing lawsuits challenge the proof-of-citizenship requirements he wrote and shepherded through the Legislature. Craig McCullah, who is in charge of the office’s publications and a spokesman for Kobach, accepted responsibility for the errors and said they resulted from a clerical mistake in updating the guides for this year’s elections. “It was an administrative error that I am diligently working to fix,” he said.

Kansas: The conservative gladiator from Kansas behind restrictive voting laws | The Washington Post

Inside a federal courtroom in Washington earlier this year, the presiding judge peered down in disbelief as a Justice Department official told him that the Obama administration would not defend a tiny elections agency but was instead siding with civil rights groups suing the government. “Unprecedented,” U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said from the bench. “I’ve never heard of it in all my years as a lawyer.” From the back of the packed courtroom emerged someone else to argue for the federal agency: a tall, clean-cut figure in a dark suit, carrying a sheaf of papers, who had traveled more than 1,000 miles that day to make his case. “Your honor, Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state,” he told the judge. He went on to defend the actions of the director of the elections agency who had single-handedly rewritten voter registration rules, prompting an immediate challenge from civil rights groups.

Kansas: Nonprofit demands investigation of former Kansas election official | Associated Press

A nonprofit public advocacy group called Wednesday for an investigation of a top federal elections official in the wake of a media report about his communications with one of the nation’s leading advocates of voting restrictions. Washington, D.C.,-based Allied Progress provided to The Associated Press a letter is said will be sent on Thursday to the Inspector General of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission asking it to look into communications between that agency’s executive director, Brian Newby, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The nonpartisan group calls itself a grassroots organization that aims to hold special interest groups accountable, and has taken up causes as diverse as voting rights, payday lending reform and keeping a crude oil export ban.

Kansas: Outraged by Kansas Justices’ Rulings, Republicans Seek to Reshape Court | The New York Times

Washington is locked in partisan warfare over control of the Supreme Court. But it is hardly the only place. Look at the states, where political attacks on judicial decisions are common and well-financed attack ads are starting to jar the once-sleepy elections for State Supreme Court seats. Nowhere is the battle more fiery than here in Kansas. Gov. Sam Brownback and other conservative Republicans have expressed outrage over State Supreme Court decisions that overturned death penalty verdicts, blocked anti-abortion laws and hampered Mr. Brownback’s efforts to slash taxes and spending, and they are seeking to reshape a body they call unaccountable to the right-tilting public. At one point, the L egislature threatened to suspend all funding for the courts. The Supreme Court, in turn, ruled in February that the state’s public schools must shut down altogether if poorer districts do not get more money by June 30.

Kansas: US elections head used political ties, then curbed voting | Associated Press

A Kansas county elections official used close ties to one of the nation’s leading advocates of voting restrictions to help secure the top job at a government agency entrusted with making voting more accessible, and then used the federal position to implement an obstacle to voter registration in three states. An email provided to The Associated Press through open records requests offers a glimpse into the mindset of Brian Newby, executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, who decided — without public comment or approval from bosses — that residents of Alabama, Kansas and Georgia can no longer register to vote using a national form without providing proof of U.S. citizenship. As a finalist for the job of executive director, Newby said in a June email to his benefactor, Kansas’ Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, that he was friends with two of the commissioners at the federal agency, and told Kobach: “I think I would enter the job empowered to lead the way I want to.” Voting rights advocates were stunned by Newby’s action once he got the job and have sued to overturn it. Activists say it flies in the face of the commission’s mission to provide a simple, easy form to encourage voter registration.

Kansas: Republicans hold to hard-right stance; ACLU and League of Women Voters ‘communists,’ Kobach says | Lawrence Journal-World

The Kansas Republican Party held firm to its hard-right stance on social issues during its state convention this weekend as various officials gave speeches railing against Planned Parenthood, same-sex marriage, the Kansas Supreme Court, the Obama administration and even the League of Women Voters. The convention came just two weeks before Republican voters in the state will vote in the March 5 caucuses to make their choice for a presidential nominee. And while some of the presidential campaigns sent surrogates to speak on their behalf, the real focus was on upcoming races for the Kansas Legislature. “Help them out because the national left doesn’t like what we’ve done in Kansas. So the next target will be getting at these state legislators,” Gov. Sam Brownback said. “You really need to get out and help them.” One of the biggest events of the day Saturday was the annual Kansans for Life prayer breakfast, which drew attendance from dozens of legislators and the state’s entire congressional delegation.

Kansas: Want to vote in this state? You have to have a passport or dig up a birth certificate. | The Washington Post

Ralph Ortiz served in the Air Force for 13 years. He was stationed on bases in the Middle East and in Kansas, where he decided to live after leaving the military. He registered to vote more than a year ago. But Ortiz was stunned to find out recently that his name was purged from the Kansas voting rolls because of a requirement he did not know about: He had to prove he was a U.S. citizen. Ortiz had gone to the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his license, and he registered to vote at the same time. Ortiz did not have documents that prove his citizenship, and no one asked him for any. Last fall, he received a letter saying his voter registration was “in suspense” because he had not shown proof of citizenship documents, a state requirement to register in Kansas. His name is off the rolls. “I was shocked,” said Ortiz, a 35-year-old father of four who was born in New York. “I defended my country for 13 years. I own a home here in Kansas. I pay taxes in Kansas. I register my vehicles in Kansas. I’m a veteran who’s registered with the VA. There were many different avenues for them to figure out that I was a U.S. citizen. It was insulting.”

Kansas: Judge: Wichita State statistician can’t have tapes to audit voting machines | The Wichita Eagle

A Sedgwick County judge has ruled that a Wichita State University statistician won’t get access to paper tapes from voting machines to search for fraud or mistakes. Judge Tim Lahey denied a motion by Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman to dismiss the case brought by statistician Beth Clarkson. But that was a hollow victory for Clarkson. Her point in filing the lawsuit was to gain access to the tapes to check the accuracy of the voting machines, searching for an answer to statistical anomalies she has found in election results. The paper tapes at issue are printed by the voting machines as each voter casts a ballot. The voter can view the tape through a plastic window in the machine to verify their choices before hitting a button that records their votes. Clarkson sued last year seeking access to the tapes under the Kansas Open Records Act. Representing herself without a lawyer, she lost.

Kansas: ACLU lawsuit over voter ID law requiring citizenship proof | Reuters

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Kansas officials on Thursday over what it calls illegal demands for additional proof of citizenship for people trying to register to vote when they renewed or applied for drivers’ licenses. In a suit filed in federal court, the ACLU claimed that more than 35,000 potential voters were blocked over two years from voting because of the additional hurdle – or nearly 14 percent of all new registrants. The Kansas law requiring documents like a birth certificate or U.S. passport for voter registration, which took effect Jan. 1, 2013, is one of numerous voter ID laws passed by Republican-led state legislatures in recent years. The ACLU alleges that Kansas goes beyond what is required by federal law.

Kansas: Kobach enforcing debated voter registration rule | KSN-TV

There’s new information coming out for Kansans who want to register to vote for the first time. At issue is citizenship, and whether you’ll need to prove you’re legally a citizen before you can register. The issue has created a debate that’s put Kansas at odds with the federal government and left Kansas residents with questions. It’s also put different rules in place for which elections – federal or state – Kansans can vote in. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he’s enforcing the citizenship rule. He’s sent a new set of instructions to county election officers, telling them everyone wanting to register to vote must prove their citizenship.

Kansas: Thwarted By The Courts, Kris Kobach Finds Yet Another Way To Restrict Voting | TPM

Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state with a long history of pushing a stridently conservative agenda on voting rights and immigration, is back in the news again — this time, for the actions of one of his former underlings. Late last month, Kobach was granted permission by the newly-appointed executive director of a federal voting commission to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The decision — issued unilaterally by Brian Newby, who previously worked under Kobach as an elections official in Kansas’ largest county — was a major surprise that was done without the say of the members of the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC), which had rejected Kobach’s request for the change twice before. The revised EAC guidance represented a major win for Kobach, who had been stymied by the courts in his efforts to fully implement his state’s proof-of-citizenship requirement. It is a blow to voting rights advocates who have opposed proof of citizenship requirements on the grounds that procuring the necessary documents will make ballot access harder people who are perfectly eligible to vote.

Kansas: Caucuses show party differences in voting approaches | Associated Press

Kansas Republicans and Democrats are preparing for March 5 presidential caucuses amid questions about voter registration rules and with several thousand potential voters who have tried to register unable to cast a ballot in the 2016 elections because they haven’t provided proof of citizenship. Participation rules for the party caucuses differ significantly from each other, and from voting at the polls later this year, because the parties themselves set the rules. The Kansas secretary of state’s office has no say in how the state parties set up the process for choosing their presidential nominee.

Kansas: Wichita State statistician casts vote for regular auditing of Kansas election returns | Topeka Capital-Journal

A Wichita statistician skeptical of electronic voting security endorsed Tuesday a recommendation by the Kansas secretary of state to allow post-election audits to determine whether mistakes or fraud occurred on Election Day. Elizabeth Clarkson, chief statistician at the National Institute for Aviation Research affiliated with Wichita State University, told the Topeka-Shawnee County League of Women Voters the conversation might be moving in the right direction with Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s proposal to amend state law to enable auditing of ballots. “I’m very pleased to see Kris Kobach propose legislation,” she said. “We do need post-election audits. Without them we don’t have transparency in our voting system.”

Kansas: Minority groups push for same-day voter registration | Lawrence Journal World

Minority leaders in Kansas and other voting rights advocates are pushing for passage of a bill this year that they say would dramatically increase voter turnout by allowing people to register to vote on Election Day and still have their vote counted. “Same-day registration” is already allowed in 10 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and Hawaii will become the 11th state in 2018. “We really believe everybody should have access to voting anytime, not just a few days out of the year. As long as they come with ID, why shouldn’t they be able to vote?” said Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita, who recently introduced a same-day registration bill in the House. Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita, is sponsoring a same-day voter registration bill that would allow people to register to vote on Election Day. Supporters argue that it would increase voter turnout, especially among young and minority voters. But some skeptics fear it could open the door to widespread voting fraud.

Kansas: Kris Kobach proposes voting-machine audits, files new voter fraud cases | The Kansas City Star

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Monday unveiled a plan that would require counties to perform audits of voting equipment for all elections starting in 2017. The proposal would provide for a percentage of precincts or districts to be manually audited after election day election day and before the vote is certified by county officials. Kobach presented his bill to the House Elections Committee, calling it a “robust” plan that would allow for a broader audit if discrepancies were found. “It goes well beyond what most states do,” Kobach said. Kobach had come under fire when he turned down requests from Beth Clarkson, a Wichita State University statistician, to review Sedgwick County voting machine tapes from 2014. Clarkson said she had identified anomalies in election results.

Kansas: Statistician’s lawyer says votes audit is vital, each 1 counts | Associated Press

A Wichita mathematician who found statistical anomalies in 2014 election counts will dispute efforts by election officials to block her request to audit voting machine results because all voters should be sure that their votes will count, her lawyer said Wednesday. Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson filed an open records lawsuit in February 2015 in her personal quest to find the answer to an unexplained pattern that transcends elections and states. She wants the voting machine tapes so she can establish a statistical model by checking the error rate on electronic voting machines used at a Sedgwick County voting station during the November 2014 general election. Sedgwick County officials filed a motion earlier this month asking Sedgwick County District Court to summarily dismiss her lawsuit. Judge William Woolley will hear arguments Feb. 18. The case is set for trial on March 22.

Kansas: Kobach: No plans to ask lawmakers for dual-registration law | Associated Press

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Wednesday that he has no plans to ask lawmakers to ban voters who registered with a federal form from casting ballots in state and local elections. Instead, he said he may appeal or ask a judge to reconsider a state court’s ruling last week that he had no legal right to institute the state’s “dual registration” system, in which those who register using a federal form that doesn’t require proof of U.S. citizenship may only vote in federal races. Under that system, voters may only cast ballots in state and local races if they register using the state form, which requires proof of citizenship.