Young voters blocked, purged

Kansas should be encouraging young adults to get involved in civic life by removing unneeded barriers to voting. But Secretary of State Kris Kobach and the Legislature did the opposite.

Kobach championed a requirement that people registering to vote provide proof of citizenship. The result was that more than 36,000 people statewide – most of whom are young and unaffiliated voters – ended up on a list of suspended voters, primarily because they didn’t provide citizenship documentation.

An Eagle analysis found that more than 40 percent of the suspended voters were younger than 30 years old. More than half on the list were unaffiliated with a political party.

It’s not surprising that younger people have been most affected by the new requirement, as they are more likely not to have registered before. They also tend to move frequently as they begin adult life, and their starter jobs may require odd work hours, which may make it difficult to complete the voter-registration process.

Kobach dismisses the documentation requirement as easy to meet. But it’s not that simple for many people, which can make registration a hassle and discourage participation.

“This is a real tragedy, because you want to involve people in the process, you want them to see their citizenship as an opportunity that is waiting for them to be acted on as citizens,” said Russell Fox, a political science professor at Friends University. “But instead, we make it hard. That increases the disaffection, and then government and politics turns off people, so they continue to not register or be involved.”

Older people who move to Kansas or need to reregister also have been ensnared by the requirement, as some may not still have a birth certificate, or may never have had one. The requirement also can be a costly challenge for women whose married names don’t match their birth certificates.

What’s particularly frustrating is that this requirement is not necessary. Kobach pushed for proof of citizenship to prevent illegal immigrants from voting. But there is no evidence that has ever been a serious problem.

In fact, it makes no sense that illegal immigrants, who try not to draw attention to themselves, would risk getting caught by voting – especially when it is extremely unlikely that their one vote would decide an election.

Yet to prevent this phantom problem, Kobach has created a real one, as the number of people on the suspended-voter list keeps growing.

Of course, Kobach has a new solution for that embarrassment: purge people from the list. Starting this week, his office is removing anyone who has been on the suspended list longer than 90 days.

Many of those purged will be young adults who tried to claim their right to vote but were blocked by an unneeded barrier. Kobach says that’s no big deal, that they just need to start the registration process over. But the point is, they shouldn’t have to.

For the editorial board, Phillip Brownlee

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Young voters blocked, purged."