State officials still are pondering how much time and money they will spend fighting recent court decisions that affect Kansas.

However, one case has gone as far as it will go in the courts — at least for now. The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to consider an appeal from Kansas and Arizona, which were seeking to require voters registering with federal forms to provide proof of citizenship. The federal form requires voters to sign a statement verifying they are citizens, but, unlike the Kansas form, it does not require proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate.

Unfortunately, the court’s decision also will leave intact a dual registration/voting system in Kansas. Relatively few Kansas voters register with the federal form, but those who do are allowed to vote only in federal elections for president and Congress. In the 2014 elections, those voters were given provisional ballots that included all of the races, but, because it was a non-presidential year, only the votes for congressional candidates were counted. Those voters supposedly were informed of this Kansas voting quirk and the procedure for becoming fully registered in Kansas, but proof of citizenship had to be presented before Election Day so it was too late to have their votes count.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach didn’t issue a statement on the court’s decision but said in a phone interview Monday, “The issue is still far from resolved.” He said he planned to pursue the matter with the federal Election Assistance Commission and that similar proof-of-citizenship cases may work their way through other federal courts and eventually convince the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the issue.

Regardless of how this issue is resolved, it will only affect about 300 Kansas voters. The much bigger issue is the number of voter registrations — mostly submitted on state forms — being held “in suspense” because they lack citizenship verification. Before last November’s election, that list included more than 23,000 voters.

Many Kansas voters register for the first time when they get their drivers licenses, and the state’s system for documenting citizenship at license bureaus apparently has broken down. Until that system is fixed, the “in suspense” list is likely to grow. Perhaps the state should be committing as much effort to fixing that system as it does to fighting over the federal voter registration forms.