Kansans face challenges when registering to vote

Not everyone’s vote will count in the next election.

Kansas’s voter registration process varies from that of other states in that it requires proof of identification — like a birth certificate — to be sent in with the registration. This is intended to eliminate voting fraud, but consequently is making registering to vote more difficult for others.

For example, League of Women Voters chair of social policy Tami Zillig. Her friend’s daughter turned 18 and filled out the paperwork to register to vote. However, after the required paperwork was sent in, she was told she needed to send her birth certificate in again. And again. And again. A total of five times.

“The 10th amendment provides for the sovereignty of the states, which allows for each state to have differing laws, including statutes regarding voting,” election commissioner Ronnie Metsker said. “Most states have similar laws, but none are likely to be precisely identical.”

Due to this amendment, Kansas has the right to create its own voting laws. Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been pushing for strict laws requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote. This law, called the Kansas Secure and Fair Elections (S.A.F.E.) Act, was adopted in 2011. Due to these laws, a potential voter must submit a documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC), which includes a birth certificate, passport, U.S. naturalization document, Bureau of Indian Affairs card, tribal enrollment number or military record of service along with the voter registration papers.

“Requiring photo identification at the polls reduces the risk of individuals voting as someone else,” director of public affairs for the Secretary of State Craig McCullah said. “Requiring proof of citizenship reduces the risk of a non-citizen voting. Any time a non-citizen votes, it effectively cancels the vote of a citizen, denying them their voice in our democracy.”

However, laws such as these can cause complications for potential voters. Failure to provide a DPOC can land voters on the suspended voter list. According to McCullah, the list  is around 26,000 people long. After 90 days, if the document is not remedied, these voters will be booted off the list and have to start the process anew.

“At this point, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and League of Women Voters are suing Kris Kobach at the national level to try and reverse some of those rules,” Zillig said. “Right now, they are saying ‘voter fraud, voter fraud,’ and I’m thinking, of all of the people who vote in the state of Kansas, I know of two instances.”

Back in May, according to court documents, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued an order saying  proof-of-citizenship laws violated the National Voter Registration Act. Kobach must reinstate “all otherwise eligible… applicants that have been canceled or are in suspense due solely to their failure to provide DPOC (documentary proof of citizenship). *Kobach has since appealed the ruling. In the same case, Robinson reviewed possible occurrences of voter fraud and found three cases from 1995 through 2013. In that same time, around 14 noncitizens tried to register to vote.

If a citizen who was on the suspended voter list were to vote in the upcoming election, their vote would be pulled because of the incomplete paperwork. It is up to the voter to check if they are approved to vote, and often a missed form can be overlooked by the voter.

“I don’t think the general public knows all this stuff,” Zillig said. “They just thought ‘oh, I voted and it’s fine, because I’m an American.’ But it’s not fine. Your ballot got dumped in the trash — or the shredder, actually.

Senior Amira Bajracharya found herself on the suspended voters list this last month.

“I had no idea [I was on the suspended voters list], because, like I said, not everything is clear when you are applying; its all jumbled up,”  Bajracharya said. “It’s frustrating because you want to get these things in on time but at the same time you are not told by anyone what you need and what you don’t need.”

After applying to vote, Bajracharya said the process was not streamlined and could be altered to be more user-friendly.

“After you apply to be a voter, there is no confirmation given to you,” Bajracharya said. “I think that is why there are so many people on the suspended voters list because there is no notification that says ‘hey, you’re on the list’ or something like that. I feel that if there was more notification, then the whole process would be a little bit easier.”

Aside from challenges of the proof of citizenship requirements, some eligible voters may also struggle with more common voting requirements such as obtaining photo IDs.

“We all just assume that everyone has a driver’s license, while in a big metropolitan area like Chicago or New York City, not everyone has to have a driver’s license,” Zillig said. “If  you don’t have a driver’s license, you will have to go into the DMV to get just a photo ID but if I’m, let’s say, an hourly employee, I would have to take off work to get that photo ID and that might really inconvenience me and I might lose pay.”

Additionally, according to Metsker, if someone registered less than 21 days before an election, they would also be ineligible to vote in that election.

However, some states are taking steps to encourage people to vote. They are implementing programs and policies which ease the voting process.

According to Zillig, groups across the country are calling for a national holiday. Germany, which observes an election day holiday, had a voter turnout of roughly 73.5 percent in 2013 for the parliamentary election according to the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, while the Unites States observed a turnout of 66.7 percent for the last presidential election in 2012.

“One thing a lot of states are turning to is something called motor voter,” Zillig said. “When you go to get your driver’s license, you turn in a copy of your birth certificate, that’s your documentations, and you are automatically registered to vote. You would have to opt to not be registered to vote.”

This program is convenient because when one gets one’s driver’s license, documents which would qualify as DPOCs already have to be turned in.

“I don’t feel like we should leave what happens with our country in the hands of a small group of people,” Zillig said. “It’s up to you and me to vote so we have a voice.”

*As of publication deadline, court cases and appeals are still in progress. More information can be found here.