Legislation

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.

This bill includes provisions that threaten to disenfranchise Kansans twice over. First, it relies on signature verification rules known to disenfranchise eligible voters. Second, it threatens to eliminate “no excuse” mail-in voting if courts intervene to protect those voters’ rights. Courts often intervene to address unconstitutional implementation practices, not to attack mail-in voting itself. Rather than fixing the problems with signature verification, this bill takes a far more extreme approach: if courts protect voters and their constitutional right to vote, the legislature will punish them. This is not good-faith policymaking, nor is this a strategy for election integrity. This is a recipe for voter suppression.

This reckless bill, which does nothing to strengthen election security or address any demonstrated vulnerabilities in Kansas elections, would require citizenship status to be listed on Kansas driver’s licenses. This is part of much larger, coordinated attack on civil rights and immigrant communities, raising serious concerns regarding privacy, discrimination, and public safety. Requiring citizenship status to appear on driver’s licenses would expose this personal information to employers, landlords, businesses, law enforcement, and private individuals, all contexts in which a person’s citizenship status is unnecessary. This unnecessary disclosure invites discrimination and profiling and creates a two-tiered system of identification that treats people differently based on immigration status.

Unnecessarily expanding voter-purge mechanisms.

Requiring a person transmitting or delivering a ballot on behalf of another voter to include such person's driver's license number in the written statement on the ballot envelope.

Amending the Constitution of the State of Kansas to require voters to present photographic ID provided by the State of Kansas, the federal government, or a tribal government to vote.

Requiring citizenship status be listed on driver's licenses.

Repealing the Mail Ballot Election Act, which provides for local, mail-only elections.

Changing several election deadlines, including when advanced ballots can be mailed out; adjusting time for applications for advanced ballots; and shortening the window for voter registration.