Hearing in suspended-voter case against Kris Kobach canceled

A hearing set for Friday in a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been canceled now that the plaintiffs have withdrawn their motion for an injunction.

Kobach’s office registered plaintiffs Cody Keener and Alder Cromwell to vote last month after confirming their birth records. The pair had sued Kobach on the basis that they were on the suspended voter registration list, which is no longer the case.

Their attorneys accuse Kobach of trying to avoid legal scrutiny by completing their registrations. “With respect to the Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction, Cody Keener and Alder Cromwell have already won,” their attorneys said in a court filing Thursday. “But one must ask this question: would they be voters today if they had not filed this lawsuit?”

Kobach has said that the Secretary of State’s Office routinely checks records with other agencies, such as the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

The case will proceed as a class action lawsuit and could potentially overturn the state’s proof of citizenship requirement, a policy Kobach championed. It requires voters to provide a copy of their birth certificate, passport or other evidence of citizenship before they can register to vote.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Hearing in suspended-voter case against Kris Kobach canceled."