Judge to Kobach, ACLU Wins, ACLU Sues Again

Kevin Surbaugh

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Kris Kobach

Topeka, Kansas -­- Last Monday, United States District Court in Kansas, Judge Julie A. Robinson ruled in favor of the ACLU, that the Kris Kobach-inspired law that required Kansas voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship, is ­unconstitutional. In her ruling, she said the law imposes a burden without a reasonable ­justification. In addition, she ordered the former Constitutional law professor, current Secretary of State and Candidate for Governor to go back to law school and retake some classes.

The next day, the ACLU again filed suit (Moore v Kobach) against Kobach, this time the so-called "Crosscheck" program. In a statement the ACLU said,

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s deeply flawed and shoddily implemented “Crosscheck” program illegally exposed the sensitive personal data – including Social Security numbers and signatures -- of nearly 1,000 Kansas voters, an ACLU of Kansas lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court said.

According to the same press release, The class action suit is being brought on behalf of three individual plaintiffs—Scott Moore, James Long, and Nancy Perry—whose privacy was breached when Sec. Kobach’s office recklessly shared their personal information, including partial Social Security numbers, with Florida officials.

Jim Barnett

In response to the news, another candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor,
­ Jim Barnett said he was continuing to call for the end of use of CrossCheck, as he has done since December of last year. In his response, he said the multi-­state voter identification program run out of Secretary of State Kobach’s office, has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security following its unintended release of hundreds of voters’ personal information. Barnett said,

“If Kobach had ended the use of CrossCheck when we called on him to do so last year, everyone would be further along. Instead, Kobach tried to fix the flawed program and cost the state of Kansas and its taxpayers a lot of time and money. This is just one more reason he shouldn’t be governor,” Barnett said, “The next governor of Kansas should help Kansas save time and money, instead of clinging to programs that have proven to be both ineffective and costly to our state.”

A 2017 independent analysis of the CrossCheck program, Barnett said, found that for every one voter registration that cast a double vote, 200 voters that cast legal votes would have their registrations eliminated, suggesting the program is wrong 99% of the time.
Kobach said in his own statement that he will not stop fighting to protect the integrity of Kansas elections, despite the new lawsuit.
Calling it baseless, Kobach said,

"This ACLU lawsuit is yet another attack on secure and fair elections in America. The ACLU is attacking states that try to keep our voter rolls clean. I will fight them every step of the way. This lawsuit is completely baseless. There is no statute that is violated when states cooperate with each other to keep our voter rolls clean. The lawsuit also ignored the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court last week that approved Ohio's efforts to keep its voter rolls clean," Kobach said. "The people of Kansas will win this lawsuit."

He reiterated that people are registered in multiple states, opening up opportunities for double voting. According to his statement, his office has obtained convictions in eleven cases in the past three-years. He then said that other cases were "in the hopper" also.