Kobach slightly modifies voter suppression drive in Kansas

John Hanna, AP Political Writer

Topeka, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will start combing through its birth certificates within a few weeks to whittle down the list of voters with registrations on hold because they haven't complied with the state's proof-of-citizenship requirement, Secretary of State Kris Kobach said.

But the Democrat who's challenging Kobach's re-election said the Republican secretary of state should have made sure the checks began in January 2013, when the state law took effect requiring new voters to provide a birth certificate, passport or other documentation of their citizenship when registering. And another Kobach critic questioned whether the checks will help many voters whose registrations are on hold.

Kobach said attorneys for his office and the state Department of Health and Environment were meeting Tuesday to finish work on an agreement between the two agencies. The health department's Office of Vital Statistics maintains birth certificates on people born in Kansas.

Under the agreement, the Office of Vital Statistics will check lists of prospective voters against its records to determine whether it has birth certificates and notify the secretary of state's office when it can verify matches, Kobach said. He said the checking should begin by mid-January.

More than 19,300 registrations are on hold because the voters haven't complied with the rule, and they cannot legally cast ballots until their citizenship is verified.

Kobach said that once a prospective voter is found to have a Kansas birth certificate, the person will be notified by elections officials that his or her registration is complete.

"The bottom line is that this is basically a service we're providing to people born in Kansas," Kobach said Tuesday. "In my mind, this is just good government."

He said he doesn't know how many people whose registrations are on hold have Kansas birth certificates and how many were born in other states, registering in Kansas for the first time after moving to the state.

Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, the state's leading gay rights group, said he doubts the checks will help women born in Kansas who've changed their names through marriage or divorce, or Kansans who've had gender reassignment surgery. Equality Kansas has sued Kobach over the administration of the policy.

"If you're a woman, or a man born out of state, back of the line," Witt said.

Kobach, a conservative Republican, championed the proof-of-citizenship law as an anti-fraud measure to keep non-citizens from voting, particularly those in the U.S. illegally. Critics say in-person voter fraud by non-citizens or anyone, for that matter, is extremely rare, and that there's no justification for such laws that threaten to keep thousands of citizens from casting ballots and to suppress the vote.

The proof-of-citizenship law and voter registrations on hold are likely to be major issues as Kobach seeks a second, four-year term in 2014.

When Democratic challenger and former state Sen. Jean Schodorf of Wichita launched her campaign in late October, she said the state needed to be using the Office of Vital Statistics records to "verify birth certificates instantaneously." She said Tuesday that she's glad Kobach adopted her idea but questioned whether the checks would go smoothly under his administration.

She also noted that legislators approved the proof-of-citizenship law in 2011 but delayed its enforcement until 2013 so that administrative issues could be worked out.

"It's pathetic that he was not able to have the knowledge or conscience to implement a law so that it would not hurt people," Schodorf said.

Kobach said his office and the health department have been working on an agreement for months and before Schodorf launched her campaign.

He said the two agencies need an agreement because of multiple laws restricting the disclosure of information in birth certificates. For example, one law says a person must have "a direct interest" in a birth certificate to review it, and the information must be "necessary for the determination of personal or property rights."

"It's not something where you just say, 'I want something done today,'" Kobach said. "Lawyers in both agencies have to be very careful."

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The Gayly – December 31, 2013 @ 2:35pm