Print edition: 
TOPEKA — Secretary of State Kris Kobach told lawmakers Wednesday that the first test of the state’s new voter ID law didn’t dampen turnout and that only one person – a woman who left her ID at home on purpose to oppose the law – didn’t have an ID at the polls.
Kobach told the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections that the Jan. 10 election in Cimarron provided a bit of evidence that the law works.
But it faces a much bigger test in Wichita on Feb. 28 when city voters decide whether to allow the city to use $2 million in subsidies for the planned Ambassador Hotel, a 117-room, $22.5 million hotel proposed for the former Union National Bank building at Douglas and Broadway.
Kobach said his office plans to start running public-service announcements on TV and radio to educate voters about the law, starting Feb. 1. Then it will buy TV, radio and print ads to further get the word out about the law in the eight days leading up to the vote.
Kobach said the education campaign in Wichita – and future voter education this spring and leading up to the primary and general election – is funded by $300,000 the state received from the Help America Vote Act.
Meanwhile, concern has arisen over access to free birth certificates for the purpose of voting as reports filter in that some people requesting certificates have been turned away or told they’d have to pay at least $15 for a copy.
Kobach said there was confusion on whether the free birth certificates for voting purposes would be available Jan. 1, 2013, when the proof-of-citizenship provisions of the law kick in, or on Jan. 1, 2012, when other aspects of the law took effect. Kobach said he clarified to county officials last week that the certificates should have been available starting this year.
Tabitha Lehman, Sedgwick County’s election commissioner, said people have come to the historic courthouse asking for the form for a free ID card, but her office hasn’t yet processed any applications.
People who would like a free birth certificate can go to the election office in Suite 101 of the historic courthouse, 510 N. Main, for the application.
People who would like a free ID to vote need to go to the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles at Twin Lakes, 1823 W. 21st St. Tag offices do not have forms for the free IDs. The DMV also has a full-service office in Andover at 111 Central.
The election office plans to be the county’s designated agency for people who need help filling out forms for both the free ID and free birth certificates, Lehman said.
She will go before the County Commission soon to make that official, she said.
The certificates could be an issue this year for someone who doesn’t have any qualifying ID and goes to the DMV hoping to get a non-driving identification card to vote. Kobach said that the new law provides for multiple forms of ID to get a non-driving ID card and that he doubts many, if any, people would fit that hypothetical situation.
Kobach said he told county clerks about the birth certificate availability last week.
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, said that the birth certificate requirement seemed to be a “poll tax,” but added she wasn’t aware the bill that became law had provisions for free birth certificates. She said one person who presented a birth certificate asking for a free non-driving ID was turned away in Sedgwick County.
Kobach said his office is trying to educate everyone about how free access to IDs works. He said the law allows people to apply for free birth certificates at county offices and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Office of Vital Statistics. KDHE spokeswoman Miranda Steele said one person has requested a free birth certificate from there, on Tuesday.
The normal fee for a copy is $15.
People who visit the vital statistics office in Topeka should be able to get a copy the same day. Requests online or by mail likely will take a week’s turnaround time, said Nathan Bainbridge, a senior executive policy analyst for KDHE.
KDHE is working on setting up an online form for people who want a free certificate.
“We expect to have it up and running next week,” Steele said.
Bainbridge said the Office of Vital Statistics handles about 550 requests every day for birth certificates.
