County election officials in Kansas are starting to cancel incomplete voter registrations that are more than 90 days old.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach put the rule in place to clear out thousands of incomplete registrations. There’s a legal challenge against the new rule, but a court last week declined to put it on hold.
Shawnee County Election Commissioner Andrews Howell says it could take weeks to sort through and identify the registrations that will be canceled.
“And making sure that we’ve done everything on our side that we can to communicate with people and let them know their status. We certainly take it seriously, we’re not just pushing a button on a computer and dumping people off,” says Howell.
The secretary of state’s office recommends immediately canceling any incomplete registrations that are 90 days old. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew says county legal staff suggested they couldn’t apply the change retroactively, so he’s starting the 90-day clock over again for incomplete registrations.
“I don’t think it would be fair to just remove a voter without them knowing there’s a date. We’ve done outreach to those voters and sent them letters, but there was no date,” says Shew.
Anyone who has a registration canceled can fill out a new voter registration form to start the process again.
