Kansas’ “strictest in the nation” election law may have been written with the intent to discriminate against certain groups of voters and should be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that it doesn’t violate federal law, a civil rights panel says in a report issued Tuesday. The report, written by the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, says that the proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements imposed by a 2011 Kansas law “may impose a substantially higher burden than that which has been previously challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.” Download the report from the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Kansas lawmakers passed the Secure and Fair Elections, or SAFE, Act at Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s urging to guard against voter fraud. However, based on testimony received at hearings conducted in January 2016, the advisory committee says that voter disenfranchisement appears to be a much bigger problem than voter fraud.
“The number of eligible voters turned away from the polls in Kansas due to lack of required identification or failure to provide documentary proof of citizenship may far exceed the number of documented cases of voter fraud,” the report says, stressing that errors in voter registration don’t rise to the level of fraud.
“Those who continue to raise concerns regarding voter fraud have cited errors in registration data as evidence that voter fraud may be significantly more widespread that it appears,” the report states, specifically rebutting claims made by Kobach and President Donald Trump that illegal voting is widespread.
Full Article: Report: Kansas Election Law Suppressing Turnout | KCUR.