Kansas judge rules against Kris Kobach in voter registration case

A Shawnee County judge’s ruling this week permanently extends an earlier injunction against a two-tiered voter registration system backed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

The case, Brown v. Kobach, started in July and led to a judicial order that allowed voters who registered at a motor vehicle office or used a federal form to cast a full ballot in the August primary — not just in federal elections.

Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks already had extended the order to cover the general election Tuesday.

Kobach said he plans to appeal.

“We believe that Judge Hendricks is wrong in his interpretation of the law,” Kobach said. “This is still a very early phase in multistage litigation that will likely go on for some time.”

The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged an administrative rule that set up a dual voter registration system. Under that system, voters who registered at motor vehicle offices or used a federal form would have been allowed to cast ballots in federal elections but not in state and local races unless they proved they were citizens.

Hendricks said in the ruling that Kobach didn’t have “the authority to create a two-tiered system of voter registration.”

The judicial decisions allowed thousands of Kansans to vote this year.

The “court remains convinced that the loss of the right to vote for more than 18,000 far outweighs any administrative difficulty the defendant may face,” Hendricks wrote in his new decision.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 allows voters to register at motor vehicle offices. The federal form requires people to swear they are citizens.

In a statement accompanying news of the judge’s decision, ACLU attorney Sophia Lin Lakin celebrated the latest ruling.

“This ruling is a victory for Kansas voters and a stinging rebuke of Secretary Kobach’s repeated efforts to improperly use his authority to obstruct their access to the ballot,” Lin Lakin said. “This decision recognizes that Kansans’ right to vote in state and local elections should be honored, no matter what registration form they used.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Kansas judge rules against Kris Kobach in voter registration case."