TOPEKA — A Kansas Republican Party officer called the Secretary of State’s Office in July to ask why a new state law that regulates gender markers wasn’t being applied to the voter registration of a transgender Democrat running for a Kansas House seat.

Senior election officials disagreed with his interpretation of Senate Bill 244, the new law that requires bathroom use and gender markers on government documents to align with an individual’s sex assigned at birth.

Clay Barker, general counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office, concluded that while the law requires voter registrations to reflect an individual’s sex assigned at birth, election officers are not responsible for enforcement. He inadvertently revealed his legal analysis in records obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., which shared the records with Kansas Reflector.

State officials say gender designations are a nonfactor for voter registration and candidate filings, but the records point to the far-reaching and uncertain implications of legislation passed in haste earlier this year without public input.

“Every Kansan deserves a government that treats them with dignity and provides clear, public information about how its laws affect their rights,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “Protecting against the quiet erosion of the fundamental right to vote is central to our mission and why we sought these records.”

Under SB 244, individuals who use a bathroom that aligns with their gender but not their sex assigned at birth can face fines, jail time and — under a bounty provision — civil lawsuits from “aggrieved” individuals. The law also invalidated hundreds of driver’s licenses for those who had changed their gender markers.

American Oversight sent requests to the Kansas Department of Revenue, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and the Secretary of State’s Office for records regarding the implementation of SB 244. Only the Secretary of State’s Office has complied with the requests.

Barker responded with emails that include an exchange between him and Bryan Caskey, the state elections director. They show Roger Lomshek, a Pittsburg resident who serves as treasurer for the Kansas Republican Party, called the office about Avery Rowland, a Democrat from Girard.

“Roger Lomshek is alleging that SB 244 applies to voter registration and is questioning why a county is not following this law,” Caskey wrote in a July 6 email. “I do not agree with his interpretation.”

Barker attempted to redact his answer to Caskey by placing a black box over it in the PDF file he provided to American Oversight. The file allows the black box to be deleted, revealing his legal analysis.

• Sherman Smith is a journalist with the Topeka-based news service Kansas Reflector.