GOP law puts freeze on local voter registration efforts, forum speakers say

New laws that the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature passed last spring already have had a chilling effect on local voter registration activities, the leader of one such effort said at a Saturday forum at the Lawrence Arts Center.

Cille King, board member and former president of the League of Women Voters of Kansas and League of Women Voters of Lawrence/Douglas County, said the county organization has suspended all voter registration efforts and related voter education activities. The action was taken in response to House bills 2183 and 2332, which passed the Legislature last session and became effective July 1. The Kansas legislation was part of a wave of bills passed in Republican-controlled state legislatures after record turnouts in the 2020 elections. The bills’ supporters claim the purpose of the legislation is to prevent election fraud, while critics claim the goal is voter suppression, citing the scant amount of election irregularities nationwide in 2020.

The forum at the monthly Douglas County Democratic Party gathering was titled “a voter suppression forum.” That was a view shared by King of the nonpartisan League. One provision in the legislation makes it a felony subject to a $100,000 fine and up to 17 months in prison for volunteers registering voters to misrepresent themselves as election officials or to be mistaken for an election official by someone they seek to register.

King is hopeful a lawsuit filed June 1 in Shawnee County District Court will lead to a temporary injunction against the registration provisions in the legislation. That would allow the League to resume its registration and educational activities. There is no indication when the judge assigned to the case will act on the injunction request, she said.

Mark Johnson, a University of Kansas law professor who is active in defending voting rights, said the two bills were a Christmas tree filled with ornaments for Republican lawmakers. Among the other provisions of the bill are:

• Limiting to 10 the number of advance ballots a volunteer can collect to return to the county election office.

• A ban on county election offices accepting donations to help with election activities.

• A ban on organizations like the League on accepting out-of-state money for voter registration or educational activities.

The purpose was to increase the power of the Legislature at the expense of the elected officials who have defended the integrity of the state’s election processes, Johnson said.

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said she did not intend to “poke the bear” when she announced last month that she would not prosecute local violations of the new laws. But she said she apparently did because two days following her announcement, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said his office would step in to prosecute reported Douglas County violations of the new laws.

Such action by the attorney general on the local level would overturn established norms, Valdez said. Currently, the attorney general’s office gets involved in prosecutions in the local district court level only at the request of a county or district attorney, she said. Most of those incidents stem from rural county attorneys without the resources to prosecute complex murder cases, she said.

It was an open question if the attorney general could prosecute Douglas County cases on his own discretion without the invitation from her office, Valdez said.

“I don’t think he can,” she said.

Her decision was based on priorities for her office, Valdez said.

“Our focus is on gun violence, sexual violence and crimes against children,” she said. “I’m not going to waste resources to prosecute League of Women Voters trying to register voters.”

In response to audience questions, Johnson said he believed the voter registration provision was primarily aimed at door-to-door activities and not such things as voter registration booths at county fairs or other large events. He said volunteers clearly identifying themselves as volunteers with signage and getting signed statements from unregistered voters that they knew the person presenting voter registration paperwork was a volunteer should protect against prosecution.

Forum moderator Amii Castle, a KU law professor, said Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew was exploring enlisting volunteers as election officials so that they could carry on with registration and educational activities without the fear of felony charges.

“I’ll let him speak for himself, but I know Jamie is trying to navigate how he might bring on election officials,” she said.

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