By JIM MCLEAN

Kansas’ “strictest in the nation” election law may have been written with the intent to discriminate against certain groups of voters and should be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that it doesn’t violate federal law, a civil rights panel says in a report issued Tuesday.

The report, written by the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, says that the proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements imposed by a 2011 Kansas law “may impose a substantially higher burden than that which has been previously challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Download the report from the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Kansas lawmakers passed the Secure and Fair Elections, or SAFE, Act at Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s urging to guard against voter fraud. However, based on testimony received at hearings conducted in January 2016, the advisory committee says that voter disenfranchisement appears to be a much bigger problem than voter fraud.

“The number of eligible voters turned away from the polls in Kansas due to lack of required identification or failure to provide documentary proof of citizenship may far exceed the number of documented cases of voter fraud,” the report says, stressing that errors in voter registration don’t rise to the level of fraud.

“Those who continue to raise concerns regarding voter fraud have cited errors in registration data as evidence that voter fraud may be significantly more widespread that it appears,” the report states, specifically rebutting claims made by Kobach and President Donald Trump that illegal voting is widespread.

Evidence Of Voter Suppression

The advisory committee report says that research has found that stricter ID and registration requirements can suppress voter participation. It goes on to say that a preliminary analysis of Kansas turnout data “suggests that voter participation declined following the implementation of the SAFE Act.”

“Testimony indicated the SAFE Act may disparately impact voters on the basis of age, sex, disability, race, income level and affiliation,” the report says.

Kobach disputes that and other findings in the report, which he calls biased.

“The advisory committee report is not worth the paper that it was written on,” Kobach said in an interview Tuesday, insisting there isn’t credible evidence of voter suppression.

“These advisory committees exist in all 50 states and some do their work pretty carefully and others do not, and Kansas unfortunately did not,” he said, charging that members of the committee “were biased” against the SAFE Act.

“You could see that in the hearings themselves,” he said. “They obtained testimony overwhelmingly from people who were opposed to the Kansas law.”

Mildred Edwards, chairwoman of the Kansas committee, defended the report, saying members made “every effort” to get differing viewpoints.

“We worked really hard as a committee to find a bipartisan presentation panel to come before us,” Edwards said, noting that Kobach was among those invited to testify.

“We cast our net far and wide and we believe those individuals with the voices that should be heard were present at that hearing,” she said.

A Kansas ‘Poll Tax’

The cost of obtaining documents necessary to prove citizenship is also a barrier, the report says. While the law makes the documents available from state agencies at no cost, some prospective voters have been charged due to “insufficient training” of state workers. In addition, the report says fees charged to Kansans by agencies in other states constitute what amounts to an unconstitutional “poll tax.”

In addition to urging a Justice Department review of the SAFE Act, the report recommends that Congress establish a working committee to study the impact of a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the section of the Voting Rights Act that authorized federal oversight of election laws in states with a history of discriminating against voters. Congress should use the information generated by the working group to develop an updated formula to identify states that “require continued review,” the report says.

The report also says the congressional working group should study the feasibility of a national voter registration system to replace a state-based system that has resulted in a confusing patchwork quilt of election laws.

“The U.S. is currently the only major democracy without a standard voter registration system at the national level,” the report says.

Kobach said the recommendation is an indication of the committee’s “sloppy work.”

“If they had done their homework, they would know that is actually prohibited by the federal Constitution … which says that the states are in charge of the registration of voters and determining who the qualified voters are,” he said.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of  kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration wants to build a 30-foot-high border wall that looks good from the north side and is difficult to climb or cut through. The specifications were found in a pair of contract notices posted to a government website further detailing President Donald Trump’s promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” at the Mexican border.

The notices were made public late Friday by Customs and Border Protection. That’s Homeland Security Department agency that will oversee the project and eventually patrol and maintain the wall. The proposals are due to the government by March 29.

One of the requests calls for a solid concrete wall while the other asks for a see-through structure. Plans call for 30- foot-long prototypes to go up in San Diego.

RENO COUNTY – Two Kansas men were injured in an accident during a pursuit law enforcement just after 2p.m. on Saturday in Reno County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Jeep Liberty was reported stolen out of Hutchinson.

The vehicle driven by Bryson Paul Allen, 26, Hutchinson, fled when Reno County deputies attempted to make a traffic stop.

During pursuit, the Jeep left the roadway and drove through several pastures and struck a fence in the 2000 block of E Longview Road.

Allen and a passenger Corey Wayne Drake, 37, Hutchinson, were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.

They were not wearing a seat belts, according to the KHP.

Details on possible charges were not available on Saturday.

By Madison Coker

KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA – Kansas animal rescuers asked the House Agriculture Committee Thursday to support their efforts in regulating puppy mills.

The proposed bill, SB47, would add pet animal rescue networks under the jurisdiction of Animal Health Commissioner of the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA). The bill passed the Senate last month on a 34-5 vote with one abstention.

The KDA would establish rules and regulations concerning the operations, registration and recordkeeping of the organization.

The bill would add a numbers of new laws and amendments for animal rescue organizations as well as licensed dog breeders. However, not everyone agrees on the proposed legislation.

One of the controversial points was changing how inspectors contact dog breeders. Under current law, it is up to the inspectors’ discretion if they want to notify a breeder they are coming before a visit.

Board Member of Unleashed Pet Rescue and Adoption Susan Kaufmann said that dog breeders should not get a warning before inspection. She compared these inspections to inspections when she worked in a hospital, and said not knowing keeps the staff always on their A-game.

“We have to be in a constant state of readiness, and that has improved our care,” Kaufmann said. “We are not spending a year getting ready, we are just always ready.”

Kansas Federation of Animal Owners member Rebecca Mosshart said this amendment is not feasible for breeders that live in rural communities.

Mosshart said everything in her town is at least 30 minutes away from each other, so it is difficult for her to come back for an inspection quickly. She said inspections without her present are difficult.

“Most of my employees do manual work,” Mosshart said. “I do not allow my employees into my record keeping.”

Rep. Virgil Weigel (D-Topeka) pointed out to Mosshart that under a licensing contract agreement, she filled out certain hours and days of the week where she, or a representative, would be available for inspection.

Mosshart acknowledged that, but said she often has to be away from her home to go to the vet. She said it would be nice to get a heads up, so she could make sure she is home for the inspection.

Another controversial topic in the bill is the addition of an $80 no contact fee. That means if an inspector came to a breeder’s home and no one was there within a certain time frame (previously allocated on their licensing contract), the breeder would be charged.

The House Agriculture Committee will now rework some of the wording in the bill before sending it for a vote. The wording could change how the bill would affect licensed puppy breeders.

Madison Coker is a University of Kansas junior studying journalism from Kansas City.

RENO COUNTY – A Kansas teen convicted on two counts of murder for the killing of his mother and sister who died after he set fire to the family home turned 18 on Friday.

Samuel Vonanchen was removed from the Bob Johnson Juvenile facility and transported to the Reno County Correctional Facility at 7 a.m. Friday, according to a social media report from the Reno County Sheriff.

A jury in August of 2016 also convicted Vonachen for attempted first-degree murder for trying to kill his father and aggravated arson for setting of the September 2013 fire.

The teen is waiting to have a new mental evaluation completed before he is sentenced in the case.
In January attorneys said they were waiting until after Vonachen turned 18 to transfer him to the adult side of the Larned State Hospital for the evaluation.