The list of legal troubles Kansas faces in implementing its voter proof-of-citizenship requirement has grown longer. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a new lawsuit challenging the policy, as well as the state’s plans to purge 30,000 people from the state’s voter rolls because they did not submit a proof of citizenship in the 90-day period mandated by the state.
The lawsuit, Fish v. Kobach, was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City. It is being brought by Kansas residents who say they have been disenfranchised by the requirement. The complaint alleges the requirement that Kansans show proof of citizenship when they register to vote at a driver’s license office violates the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the “Motor Voter” law. It also says the move to block the voters who already registered for not showing a proof of citizenship violates a section of the NVRA that outlines when a voter can be removed from a state’s voter registration roll.
Kansas’ Secretary of State Kris Kobach is listed as a defendant in the suit, as is Nick Jordan, the secretary of revenue for the state.
It comes days after a separate suit was filed by other voting rights groups challenging the surprise decision of a federal official to approve adding the proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form in Kansas, and in Georgia and Alabama.
Read the ACLU complaint below:
