Kris Kobach laying groundwork for two-tiered voting system in Kansas
The plan creates three classes of registered voters, according to the Legislative Research report provided to Ward on Thursday:
• Voters using either the federal or Kansas form and providing state-required documents proving their citizenship would be able to vote in all federal, state and local elections.
• Voters who use the federal form but don’t provide citizenship documents will be allowed to vote only for candidates running for president, vice president and Congress.
• Registrants who file a Kansas form but don’t provide citizenship documents will be put in suspension and won’t be allowed to vote in any election.
O RLY?The challenge to Kansas law has grown since an Arizona proof-of-citizenship law similar to Kansas’ was struck down in June by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled it conflicted with the federal Motor Voter Act, a law designed to make registration more consistent from state to state and require driver’s license bureaus to provide voter-registration forms.
Kobach’s legal analysis of the decision is that it applies to federal elections only.
“The federal government doesn’t have the authority to tell Kansas what to do in Kansas elections,” he said.
). What will be interesting to see is how many right leaning whites are collateral damage and lose the ability to vote in state elections. If a chunk of Johnson Countians are disenfranchised, that would make for some interesting news. Proving one's identity seems like it would be an easy thing to do, but my family just spent 9 months getting the paperwork of a family member who is a lifelong Kansas resident straightened out. It is an unbelievable amount of work.