Letter

ACLU Letter to Kris Kobach Re: National Voter Registration Act Non-Compliance

Document Date: November 20, 2015
Affiliate: ACLU of Kansas

On November 20, 2015, the ACLU, the ACLU of Kansas, and Dechert LLP sent a letter to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on behalf of our clients Ralph Ortiz, Wayne Fish, Donna Bucci, Tad Stricker, and T.J. Boyton, and all eligible Kansans who sought to register to vote while submitting a DMV driver's license application but were not allowed to register and were instead placed on a "suspense list" for not providing documents to prove their citizenship. The letter calls on Secretary Kobach to comply with the National Voter Registration Act (also known as the Motor-Voter Law), which requires the state to allow voters to register at the DMV without adding extra requirements like proof of citizenship. Kansas’s “suspense list” of approximately 37,000 Kansans violates this federal law.

If Secretary Kobach doesn't take steps to remedy the violation within 90 days, we are prepared to initiate litigation.

See December 17, 2015 follow-up letter to Kris Kobach