Atchison County official allows city residents to register to vote after lawsuit threat
Atchison County will again allow residents of the City of Atchison to register to vote following a local outcry and a threatened lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, according to an email from the Kansas secretary of state’s office.
County Clerk Michelle Phillips had stopped registering city residents in late June because of an upcoming local sales tax election next week. State law cuts off registrations 21 days before an election.
The registration blackout meant city residents who want to register ahead of the Aug. 2 election – which will determine the future of abortion rights in Kansas – had lost their chance to vote.
But Clay Barker, deputy assistant Kansas secretary of state, told the ACLU of Kansas on Friday morning he spoke with Phillips and that registration would be reopened.
“They will reach out to everyone who tried to register as new voter and ask them to either return to register, if they had been turned away, or that their registration form will be processed,” Barker wrote in an email to ACLU of Kansas legal director Sharon Brett.
Brett, who said the ACLU of Kansas had threatened to file a lawsuit at noon Friday, provided a copy of the email to The Star. Phillips didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Barker confirmed he sent the email and said registration was reopening for residents of the city of Atchison. Residents who register between now and the statewide deadline of July 12 can’t vote in the local sales tax election but will be allowed to vote in the August election.
Atchison could prove a source of support for a proposed amendment, called Value Them Both by supporters, that would remove the right to an abortion from the Kansas Constitution. The city is home to Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts college.
The city of roughly 10,800 northwest of Kansas City is set to hold a special election on a sales tax on July 14. State law requires registrations to end 21 days before an election, prompting a halt to registrations for city residents on June 23.
Normally, registrations would resume the day after the election. But because July 15 is already within the 21-day window for the Aug. 2 election, Atchison residents appeared to have missed their opportunity to register.
Atchison County residents who don’t live in the city of Atchison weren’t affected and could always register.
Brett told The Star the decision to close registration violated the National Voter Registration Act, because the August election includes primaries for federal offices, such as U.S. representative and senator. Brett provided The Star with a copy of the email.
The federal law requires voter registration to either be open until 30 days before an election or a time set by state law, whichever is shorter.
Whitney Tempel, a spokeswoman for Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, said his office will try to address the conflict between state and federal law during the next legislative session.
Some local residents had urged the City of Atchison to cancel or postpone the election, but local officials refused.
“There is a group trying to make this a city issue when the city has no authority to govern voter registration,” city manager Amy Finch said in a statement on Thursday.
This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 10:50 AM.
