The ruling stems from an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed on behalf of Kansans who have tried to register to vote through the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles and have been forced to provide additional documentation of citizenship. She ordered Kansas to register thousands of voters whose paperwork is on hold because they did not comply with the requirement. The judge stayed her ruling until May 31 so the state could appeal, which Kobach has said he plans to do. 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.
Advertisement
The judge said those three cases pale in comparison to the magnitude of harm suffered by the more than 18,000 qualified citizens who, under this law, could not vote.
Caskey also said that the Secretary of State’s office has asked all of the state’s counties to use the new interagency Internet access to determine whether the Division of Motor Vehicles possesses citizenship documents for voter registration applicants on the suspense list.
Judge Julie A. Robinson said only a few noncitizens have broken the rules to vote in Kansas in recent years, and that doesn’t outweigh the hurdles placed in the way of thousands of legal voters who are struggling to prove their citizenship.
“These types of questions, of whether or not one is registered depending upon which form they used, whether it was state or federal, or whether it was at the DMV … all of this confusion ultimately leads back to the fundamental objective of the Republicans in this case, which was to discourage people from engaging in the political process”, Wiley said. Arizona is the only other state that has actually implemented it, and that state has made sure eligible voters who register at motor vehicle offices make it onto the voter rolls for federal elections. Robinson, in her preliminary injunction Tuesday, signaled she believed it was likely challengers would win in a full decision on the merits. “For a guy who wants to wipe out voter fraud, which national experts have shown time and time again does not exist, Kobach appears to be involved in his own attempt to prevent people from voting”.
Advertisement
Pratt Wiley of the Democratic National Committee is critical of election officials in Kansas over the state’s ever-changing voter laws.
