Kansas official issues 90-day time limit for voter registrations

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach issued a rule Thursday that incomplete voter registrations will be canceled after 90 days.

The decision came after voting rights groups lodged vigorous objections to the time limit. The rule takes effect Oct. 2.

More than 35,000 voter registration applications are currently “in suspense,” and about 30,000 are incomplete because registrants have yet to provide a passport or birth certificate.

Such “proof-of-citizenship” documents have been required since January 2013, but no limit had been placed on how long county election officials kept the incomplete registrations.

“It really violates the spirit of what our nation, our constitution, was built on the participation of all,” said Marge Ahrens, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Kansas, about Kobach’s decision.

“It feels so disrespectful of Kansans,” she said.

Doug Bonney, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said Kobach should have at least increased the time limit from his 90-day proposal.

“That’s disappointing because 90 days just isn’t sufficient to allow busy people to correct the deficiencies in their voter registrations,” Bonney said.

No doubt the rule will depress the number of people who complete the registration process, he said. The ACLU will review the rule and will consider whether filing a lawsuit is appropriate, he said.

The rule could delete about 30,000 incomplete registrations, and those people would be required to file new registrations. That’s hard, Ahrens said.

“It’s very problematic to make this group of people begin the registration process again,” she said.

Kobach had argued that the 90-day limit was not a hardship and that two states with similar laws have shorter deadlines. Obtaining the documents and presenting them to election officials, which can be done electronically, isn’t difficult, he said.

Kobach had said the rule was a matter of efficiency and cost-savings because county election officials repeatedly tried to contact people about completing registrations.

Bonney said the long list of incomplete registrations was more of an embarrassment to Kobach than anything. Kobach championed the proof-of-citizenship requirements.

Advocates said older people, potential voters who have moved from other states and the disadvantaged, who don’t have easy access to computers, are all harmed.

She said the League of Women Voters and volunteers across the state won’t give up.

“We will continue to education people about the vote in Kansas and to assist people on the incomplete list,” she said.

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