Proposed Kansas Administrative Regulation 7-23-15
League of Women Voters of Kansas
September 2, 2015
I am Marge Ahrens, Co-President of the nearly eight hundred members of the League of Women Voters
of Kansas. Thank you Secretary Kobach, for the opportunity to speak to the proposed amendments to
Kansas Administrative Regulations 7-23-15 relating to Kansas proof of citizenship requirements. This
proposed regulation requires that county election officers reject voter registration applications if the
applicant does not submit evidence of citizenship within 90 days of attempted registration.
The League of Women Voters believes that voting is a fundamental citizen right that must be guaranteed.
The League began efforts to gain and protect the vote 95 years ago last week, and with its first local
League in the nation in Wichita, Kansas. In Kansas members have become a primary source of voter
registrants, voter education and training of community groups who want to register voters. The League
does not support candidates or political parties.
The League is concerned about existing voter ID and proof of citizenship laws in Kansas because of their
complexity and difficulty of implementation, resulting confusion for citizens and poll workers, and now
fear of prosecution for attempting to vote. We see little or no proof of efforts at impersonation at the
polls, nor reason to believe that non-citizens would risk their status by attempting to vote.
Under the new and existing “SAFE Act” in Kansas thirty four thousand, nine hundred forty six (34,986)
Kansas residents had filed “incomplete” voter registration applications by this past July 22. All but 5,000
of those persons attempted to register to vote following the start date of the Kansas “Proof of
Citizenship” law on January 1,2013. Since then the “incomplete” or “suspense” list of those voter
applicants has grown at the average of 1100 Kansans per month or 15% to 20% of all those attempting to
register to vote.
The Kansas Secretary of State’s Office (SOS) reports that 87% of those incomplete applications are
suspended, (meaning that the Kansas applicants are still unable to vote in local, state or federal
elections) because they have not turned in copies of their personal documents to local election officials
or the Kansas Secretary of State.
I. The League disapproves of the SOS plan to purge the incomplete voter registration list of all those
citizens whose applications to register to vote in Kansas are incomplete at the end of 90 days for these
reasons:
A. We know the complexity of the laws poses time, organization, money and communication
challenges to many in meeting the proof of citizenship requirements without assistance. According to
the Office of the Secretary of State, most voter registration applications for Kansans originate at the
Department of Motor Vehicles. The SOS reports that those persons are now routinely screened by the
Office of Vital Statistics. After screening for existing Kansas birth records, the persons sit on county
“incomplete” registration lists.
B. We know an out of state birth certificate can be costly or time-consuming to obtain. For
example, in New York a birth certificate costs $45 and can take up to 12 weeks to obtain. Online ordering
of documents presumes computer knowledge and access, methods of payment and receipt of mailed
documents.
C. The League assists persons with voter registration from Great Bend to Johnson County and
from Leavenworth to Wichita. Our members understand that persons of lower economic means move
often and are without the resources to obtain, maintain and transmit personal documents needed to
complete a Kansas voter application. Failed repeated attempts by local election officials to reach them
by mail and phone reflect these realities. The League’s pilot study in Lawrence in 2014 showed that
personal contact rather than mail, phone or e-mail is required to successfully help persons on the
“incomplete” list complete their applications. No state or local government service or fund exists to
assist these persons with completion of their complex voter registrations.
D. The rule change does not require that the incomplete voter registration list be permanently
maintained for that future government or volunteer groups might assist persons with registration
completion.
E. Removing applications from the “incomplete” or suspense” list will require all 27.000 persons
to again begin the voter registration application in its entirety. Groups of citizens affected by removing
all except those who applied in the last 90 days include
I. Persons age 16-18 who wish to register to vote at age of maturity. Their next Kansas
Department of Motor Vehicles contact and reminder to register will take place when at ages 20-24, at
the time of license renewals, when several election cycles could have passed. (The regulation should also
explain what will happen to young citizen registrants.)
2. Persons who have shown their proof of citizenship but whose information was not forwarded
to the county election officials. This fact has been documented in the American Civil Liberties Union
lawsuit filed in 2013 on behalf of voters Aaron Belenky of Overland Park and Scott Jones of Lawrence
(Belenky v. Kobach). They had provided passports when applying for driver’s licenses, but it was only
when the Secretary of State researched their applications that proof was recovered.
3. Long time Kansas voters who move within Kansas from home to assisted living or nursing home
and then have to re-register to vote and supply proof of citizenship for the first time in their long lives ,
for births which may have occurred in another state or in one’s home. We note that the proposed
Regulation will not help these individuals, most of whom registered before 2013 and did not provide
citizenship documents.
II. The League believes that the incomplete or suspense list, which is greater than the population of
thirteen first class Kansas cities, represents
A. A double defiance of our protection of the right to vote by both the Kansas and U.S.
Constitution
B. A Kansas administrative mess between the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Kansas Office
of Vital Statistics, the Office of the Secretary of State and potentially 105 local election
officials, antiquated and incompatible computer systems and unwritten policies
C. A cost to Kansas county officials with limited resources in time and effort to assist persons
with completion of their voter registrations
D. A cost to Kansas citizens in real time, real money, confusion and now intimidation and fear
should they attempt to vote when not fully registered. The cost in discouragement in
participation in the vote is beyond estimation. The long incomplete or “suspense” list is
proof that voter access is not free and fair for all Kansans.
III. For all of these reasons, the League is opposed to this proposed regulation. It will further interfere
with efforts to register persons on the incomplete registration list. Specifically:
A. The regulation will not allow voters to provide proof-of-citizenship documents up to the day
before the election of to vote provisionally and provide documents to the canvassing board,
unless persons began their registrations within 90 days of an election. At a minimum
applicants should be allowed to stay on the incomplete list for at least the duration of the
federal election cycle (or 90 days, whichever is longer), so that applicants may continue to
use these procedures.
B. The regulation dos not ensure that the Secretary will use Vital Statistics records to identify
applicants with Kansas birth certificates. We have been informed that election officials are
doing this, but there is no specific requirement in the regulations and no standards for how
it is to be done. We have reason to think this program is not working as it should now. The
League carried out a registration drive at a high school and found that the vast majority of
those on the incomplete list were not cleared by the Vital Statistics check. It is highly
unlikely such a small fraction of the students were born in Kansas. At the very least, the
regulation should expressly require election officials to attempt to verify citizenship using
Vital Statistics records, and applicants would not be removed until election officials have
made this check.
C. The regulation does not expressly require the State to maintain a public record of those
individuals who were cancelled. It is essential this be done so that the League and others
may attempt to register these cancelled voters.
D. The regulation does not include any notice requirements. As indicated above, the state’s
efforts at notification are falling short as it is. If applicants will be given less time to provide
documents, notification should be strengthened, and applicants should be given more time
if they say they need it.
E. Even though we have been informed that the regulation will not cancel federal applicants,
the regulation does not say this expressly and does not confirm that those persons will not
be placed on the incomplete list in the future. The regulation must be more clear on this
issue.
The League of Women Voters of Kansas believes that plans to eradicate all but the last 90 day
applicants from the incomplete or “suspense” list further disrespects the right to vote in Kansas. We
believe as research indicates*, that adoption of these laws has been driven by racial, class and partisan
considerations. Proposed Kansas Administration Regulation 7-23-15 follows suit.
We represent instead the view which allows “ALL the governed an equal voice in the
government” because “that, and that only, is self-government”. (Abraham Lincoln, October 16, 1854;
Framed in the entrance to the Kansas State Capital).
*http://www.lwvohio.org/assets/attachments/file/Erin%20OBrien_LeagueofWomenVotersOhio(1).pdf