To Kansas Election Officials RE Election Protection 2026

The ACLU of Kansas is never busier than when the Legislature is in session. Whether independently or with our partners in diverse coalitions spanning across the state, we work to defend, protect, and expand civil liberties for all Kansans through the legislative process. Follow along here on our 2026 Legislative Hub, where we'll include weekly recaps, key bill summaries, toolkits, and more.

While the ACLU of Kansas appreciates legitimate efforts to protect freedom of speech and believes college campuses are public forums, other provisions in this bill undercut basic values of fairness and freedom of expression. By expanding existing loopholes, this bill will allow government-funded student organizations to exclude individuals from membership or leadership based on discriminatory criteria. This legislation would require public institutions to subsidize organizations, including ethnic supremacist political organizations, that actively exclude and discriminate against students based on political beliefs. Free speech must be protected, but taxpayers should not be compelled to support outright discrimination and exclusion under the guise of free speech.

This bill undermines judicial discretion and disproportionately harms low-income Kansans by mandating arrest and imposing stricter pretrial conditions based solely on charge level rather than individualized risk. These measures will only serve to increase incarceration rates and deepen systemic inequities. This bill significantly limits judicial discretion by prohibiting courts from issuing summonses in felony cases, regardless of individual circumstances. Removing this discretion undermines a core principle of our justice system: decisions should be based on individuals, not just the charges against them. For individuals living paycheck to paycheck, even short periods of pretrial detention can result in job loss, eviction, disruptions to childcare, and financial instability. Wealthier defendants are better positioned to absorb these mandated disruptions or post secured bond; poorer defendants are not.

This bill unnecessarily expands voter-purge mechanisms, relies on unreliable data sources, suppresses lawful civic engagement by non-governmental organizations, invites government misuse of personal information, and places unnecessary administrative burdens on state agencies. Database matching has a high error rate and has repeatedly resulted in eligible U.S. citizens being wrongly flagged or removed from the voter rolls. This bill does not address how data would be transferred or how this information would be protected. Compiling a list of already vulnerable residents poses serious threats to their safety. Furthermore, third-party voter registration has long played a crucial role in reaching young voters, first-time voters, rural Kansans, voters with limited internet access, and communities historically underrepresented in the electorate. Voter registration activity is not merely administrative—it is political speech protected by the First Amendment.