Two big things just happened for Kansas voters

With an election year quickly on its way, it is important to understand certain issues when it comes to the voting process. In a span of a few days, two big things occurred for Kansas voters: A Kansas Supreme Court ruling and a recent opinion from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach.

Kansas Supreme Court rules 2021 law creates a ‘threat’

In 2021 a bill was introduced, starting in the Kansas House in regards to Kansas elections. It was extremely popular among Republicans but not for Democrats. Gov. Laura Kelly even vetoed the bill, but her veto was overridden and the bill took effect July 1 of that year. The bill did a number of things from making it illegal to knowingly alter the date of an advanced mail ballot to county election officers being unable to accept advance mail ballots without first matching the person’s signature on the advance voting ballot envelope with the signature on file in the county voter registration records.

However, there was one specific thing this bill did that got challenged in the Kansas Supreme Court by a number of groups including League of Women Voters of Kansas (LWVK), Loud Light, Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Inc., and Topeka Independent Resource Center. Their big issue was when it came to the bill’s language regarding the criminalization of false representation of an election official. The appellants contended that the statute is “overbroad, unconstitutionally vague, and results in the criminalization of their voter education and registration activities.”

The Kansas Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Friday, December 15, that the law created a credible threat of prosecution to those who volunteer helping Kansans to register and cast their votes through normal civic engagement activities.

“For years the state has been gaslighting Kansans about the threat the laws they pass pose on its people,” President of Loud Light Davis Hammet said in a statement. “We hope that this unanimous opinion from the Kansas Supreme Court makes our state legislators craft laws with more care and respect for our constitution rights.”

This case now goes back to the Court of Appeals.

Kansas AG Kris Kobach releases opinion regarding review of ballots

Responding to a question posed by Rep. Francis Awerkamp (R-Jackson, Pottawatomie, and Riley Counties), AG Kobach responded on Tuesday with his official opinion.

The question asked was whether election officials conducting postelection audits must review original paper ballots rather than ballot images. AG Kobach concluded that the official paper ballots must be counted and not just the ballot images, stating:

“Whether election officials conducting postelection audits should be authorized to review printed ballot images instead of official paper ballots—or whether the time period for postelection audits needs to be extended to account for the burdens of hand sorting official paper ballots—are questions for the Legislature to address in the future, if the Legislature so chooses. For now, the Legislature has provided that postelection audits must review the official paper ballots.”