A Topeka judge has denied a move by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to quash a lawsuit challenging the state’s two-tier voter registration system and said Kobach has exceeded his authority with the way he runs elections. Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Kansas and Missouri, called the ruling a “great day for voting rights and a great day for Kansas.” The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of voters who have been frozen out of state and local elections because they registered to vote using federal registration forms and didn’t provide proof-of-citizenship documents required by Kansas law.
Kubic said now that Kobach’s motion for summary judgment has failed, the ACLU will file a motion seeking summary judgment in its favor. If the judge rejects that as well, the case will go to trial at a yet-to-be-scheduled date, Kubic said. “There are still some steps in the process, but we are much closer than we were,” he said.
Kobach told the Associated Press he couldn’t comment in detail because the case is ongoing but that “We’re still, I think, a ways from a final decision.”
The case hinges on whether Kobach, the state’s top election official, is properly applying state and federal laws on proof of citizenship.
Full Article: Topeka judge: Kris Kobach exceeded election authority.