By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
A Kansas board has approved a temporary rule requiring county election officials to throw out votes in local and state races cast by tens of thousands of people who register at motor vehicle offices without proving U.S. citizenship.
At least 147 people in Ellis County are affected, according to Ellis County Clerk Donna Maskus.
“Our direction from the Secretary of State’s Office right now–which we’re moving forward with because election day is around the corner–is those people have to vote a provisional ballot,” Maskus said. “Then we will go over those provisional ballots before the canvass (by the Ellis County Commission) and those votes would only count with the federal candidates.”
The State Rules and Regulations Board met this morning, Tuesday, July 12, to consider a proposed temporary rule sought by Secretary of State Kris Kobach that counts only the votes cast for federal offices. Those voters would be given a provisional ballot.
The move comes after a federal appeals court upheld U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson’s preliminary injunction ordering Kansas to allow qualified voters who registered while getting their driver’s licenses to vote in the upcoming races for president, U.S. Senate and House.
The State Rules and Regulations Board’s action Tuesday came only a day before Kansas opens advance voting for its Aug. 2 primary.
The rule sought by Kobach will be in effect for 120 days, through the Nov. 8 general election.
The affected voters registered at motor vehicle offices without providing citizenship papers as required by a 2013 state law. About 17,000 are in that category.
Civil rights groups recently demanded in an open letter that Kobach rescind his instructions to local election officials to throw out votes cast in upcoming local and state races by tens of thousands of people who registered at motor vehicle offices without providing proof of U.S. citizenship.
The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, Micah Kubic, says Kobach is “deliberately creating chaos” for voters and “acting out of petulance.”
“To disregard the court’s ruling and knowingly operate an illegal system would show a troublingly cavalier attitude towards the rule of law, as well as disrespect for voters themselves,” the letter said.
Kobach called the ACLU’s letter “nonsense,” citing the federal court ruling requiring the state to allow voters who registered at motor vehicle offices to vote in the federal elections.
“It is the judge’s order that carves out a special category of voters,” Kobach said in an email. “Kansas law requires all others to follow our proof-of-citizenship law. I will continue to enforce and implement Kansas law.”
Kobach has championed the documentation requirement as a way to prevent non-citizens from voting, particularly immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. Critics contend the requirement suppresses turnout.