The American Civil Liberties Union launches a national campaign Sunday to advance reform in 50 states to make it easier to vote.
The public event was scheduled for Kansas because of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has championed election law changes challenged in court by ACLU attorneys. Kobach, a Republican candidate for governor, also serves as vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s special commission on elections.
“The reason we’re doing it in Kansas, of course, is Secretary of State Kobach has imposed all of these restrictions on the ability of people to participate in elections,” said Micah Kubic, executive direction of the ACLU of Kansas.
Kobach said a Kansas election law requiring people to present proof of citizenship to register and present photo identification when casting ballots served to protect integrity of elections.
He also helped push through legislation in Kansas moving spring municipal elections to the fall in a bid to improve turnout. The 2017 election cycle will be the first to have fall municipal elections.
“Municipal elections tend to have lower voter turnout,” Kobach said. “The move from spring to fall was done to boost turnout closer to that of even-year elections.”
In Kansas, Kubic said the state ACLU chapter would work to repeal the proof of citizenship and photo ID statutes. The organization will seek to halt operation by the secretary of state’s office of a computer cross-check system designed to help participating states identify people voting illegally, he said.
“It generates bad data,” Kubic said. “It is complete nonsense. Kansas taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for it.”
Kubic said an effort would be made to expand early voting in Kansas beyond a 20-day window. Kansans also should be allowed to register and vote on Election Day, he said.
Kobach, a columnist for the Breitbart political publication, has generated controversy by writing it was “likely” the 2016 U.S. Senate election in New Hampshire was “stolen through voter fraud” by Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan after thousands of people used out-of-state licenses to register and vote. The conclusion was dismissed by New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who serves with Kobach on the presidential commission.
In November 2016, Kobach said he agreed with Trump’s contention that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the presidential election and delivered a popular-vote majority of 3 million votes to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump won the presidency by prevailing with the Electoral College.
Kobach said the president was “absolutely correct when he says the number of illegal votes cast exceeds the popular vote margin between him and Hillary Clinton.”
The national ACLU voting rights campaign, “Let People Vote,” is designed to be one of the largest grassroots efforts in the organization’s history.
It will be launched at the Lied Center on the KU campus in Lawrence, and the event is free and open to the public.
Doors open at 5 p.m. for a community celebration of food and entertainment. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. and will include remarks from ACLU national political and voting rights staff as well as a panel discussion about Trump’s commission on election integrity.