We have editorialized in support of the concept of Voter ID. If you want to cast a ballot with regard to the future of your government — at the local, state or federal levels — it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask that you prove you are who you say you are. Needless to say, we think any state-issued or military-issued form of identification should be sufficient to vote in that state. If you’re 18 and eligible to have that ID, that should be all you need to vote. Which is why the reports out of Kansas are a disturbing affront to citizenship. There, as of September, about 37,000 people were unable to vote.
On Feb. 18, the American Civil Liberties Union sued Kansas, saying that thousands of Kansas residents are “trapped in limbo” because of the requirement that Kansas residents who register to vote have to show documents, such as a birth certificate or a passport, proving they are citizens.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach spearheaded a law that, beginning in 2013, required Kansas residents who registered to vote using the state voter form to provide proof-of-citizenship documents, such as a birth certificate or a passport. Those with incomplete voter registration applications are removed from the rolls after 90 days and have to try to re-register.
Full Article: Journal Times editorial: Kansas has a serious Voter ID problem, and needs to fix it | Editorial | journaltimes.com.