Share
Judge Strikes Down Kansas Voter ID Law; Orders Kobach Take Legal Classes
Lost in the hyperspeed news cycle is this important and somewhat amusing story from last month about villain Kris Kobach. Score one for the good guys and girls for once.
A federal judge on Monday [June 18, 2018] permanently struck down Kansas's proof-of-citizenship voter registration law, handing down a blistering ruling against Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, one of the country's most vocal advocates of voter-ID laws.
....the state’s requirement that voters show proof of citizenship during registration violated both the Constitution and the National Voter Registration Act.
....ordered Kobach to take six additional hours of continuing legal education that “pertain to federal or Kansas civil rules of procedure or evidence.”
Voter fraud is NOT an issue. Voter suppression IS.
....the law, championed by Kobach, prevented “tens of thousands of eligible citizens” from registering to vote....and that “the process of completing the registration process was burdensome for them.”
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Kobach’s law blocked some 35,000 Kansans from being able to register to vote.
Dictators stay in power by not allowing a vote for their position at all or staging an "election" that is controlled in a manner that pre-determines the results. In the United States, something so brazen seems unimaginable. Wake up.
Kobach....has long claimed there is widespread voter fraud by noncitizens despite providing no evidence of any such improprieties and only prosecuting a few fraud cases in Kansas.
In an earlier court order, Robinson had held Kobach in contempt for skirting court orders related to the law and failing to send postcards confirming registration for thousands of voters.
Kobach, who personally defended the law in court, is running for Kansas governor. He was a former vice-chair of President Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission.
More specifically, here's what happened to Kansas residents:
In Kansas, Kobach has been the driving force within the GOP behind policies that erect new barriers to the ballot box and the most fervent evangelist of unproven voter fraud claims... Kobach alleged that “the illegal registration of alien voters has become pervasive,” even though there were only 5 alleged cases of non-citizens voting in Kansas during the previous 13 years... That led Kansas to enact a law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.... Since the law went into effect in 2013, 1 in 7 Kansans who attempted to register have had their registrations held “in suspense” by the state. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit blocked a key part of the law last year, ruling that “there was an almost certain risk that thousands of otherwise qualified Kansans would be unable to vote in November.”
Kobach's crusade against make believe voter fraud in the state of Kansas, as well as his role in assisting states in crafting legislation to crackdown on illegal immigration has made him an enemy of the people. He also was an architect of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System following the September 11 attacks, which was widely criticized by human rights groups for targeting Muslim immigrants.
Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement that the judge’s decision is a “stinging rebuke” of Kobach and his “show-me-your-papers law.”
“That law was based on a xenophobic lie that noncitizens are engaged in rampant election fraud,” Ho said in the statement. “The court found that there is 'no credible evidence' for that falsehood, and correctly ruled that Kobach’s documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement violates federal law and the U.S. Constitution.”
Sources:
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/392893-judge-rules-against-kobach-in-voter-registration-case