Reports that Kansas discarded provisional voter ballots in the 2016 election at a rate higher than almost any other state is further proof that Kansas should not be the model to follow in establishing federal election guidelines.

Kansas becoming an election model for the country wasn’t a real concern until President Donald Trump appointed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the architect of Kansas’ voting policies, co-chairman of Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Kobach is the architect of some of the nation’s most restrictive voter registration policies. The requirements to register to vote require extensive documentation and are most burdensome on poor and elderly voters. New data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission show just how effective those policies have been, not only at keeping people from the polls in Kansas, but also challenging their ballots once they do turn out.

Provisional ballots are given to any voter whose legitimacy to vote is questioned. The voter is allowed to cast a ballot, but the ballot is flagged for later review to determine if the ballot, or a portion of the ballot, will be counted. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission data shows that Kansas discarded 13,717 provisional ballots in the 2016 election.

Only six states — Arizona, California, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas — discarded more votes than Kansas. The states that discarded more votes than Kansas all rank in the top 10 nationally in population; Kansas ranks 33rd.

Kansas discarded more provisional ballots than Florida (13,461) and Illinois (12,270). No neighboring state — Missouri (3,803), Oklahoma (5,419) and Colorado (1,483) — was even close to Kansas in terms of rejecting ballots.

Kansas also issued more provisional ballots than nearly any state. Kansas had 40,872 provisional ballots in the 2016 election. Only seven states — California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas — had more.

Given the numbers, it’s hard to argue with critics who say that Kobach’s policies sacrifice thousands of legal votes in order to prevent a handful of illegal ones.

“Secretary Kobach uses every trick that he can to make it as hard as possible for eligible voters to cast a ballot — whether it is unconstitutional legislation, targeting immigrants or forcing more eligible voters to use provisional ballots,” Jason Kander, president of voting rights advocacy group Let America Vote, told The Associated Press. “He is on a crusade to stop people from voting, and now the president of the United States has given him a bigger platform.”

Kobach’s suppressive policies have set voting back a half century in Kansas, and he should not have any role in guiding voting practices on the national level.