This week, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office will take comments on a plan to cancel incomplete voter registrations after 90 days. There’s a public hearing on the proposal Wednesday in Topeka.
Kansas law requires people registering to vote for the first time to provide proof of citizenship. More than 30,000 registrations are currently on hold because they’re lacking the required documents. Kobach says many of the incomplete registrations are from people who have now moved out of state. He says the change would save taxpayer money, because county governments currently have to maintain the list and try to contact the would-be voters.
“The 90-day rule is just an administrative way of lightening the load on the counties, reducing the amount of money they have to spend on postage,” says Kobach.
The League of Women Voters of Kansas says the change won’t fix the underlying issue that’s preventing people from registering to vote. League Co-President Marge Ahrens says they use the suspense list to help identify Kansans who need help completing their voter registrations. If the list is purged, she says they won’t be able to easily identify those people.