Kris Kobach's Kansas: Bigger Government, Less Freedom

A key author of bills for the American Legislative Exchange Council, Kris Kobach has big plans for our state. The real question is: Is that the Kansas we want? KanVote's number one mission is to protect civil rights in Kansas. Sometimes to get to the point, one needs to go on a tangent. Kobach did just that at a debate, shown below.

Kris Kobach blames low voter turnout on schools and believes the Kansas Secretary of State should educate your children on how to vote and how government should work. He cites himself as a constitutional law expert (he did write the Arizona SB1070 law and it's Kansas corollary). Kobach tells the audience that he would like to use his elected position to deliver civics education directly into your home, to your children to create a "one stop shop" for civics education.

When told that this role is a secondary function of the office, KK turns to voter fraud. Kobach cites anecdotal examples of Somali nationals illegally voting in Missouri to make his point that it happens in Kansas. His solution? Prove you're a citizen when you register, and this would make voter fraud impossible. Which makes perfect sense--because how could anyone fake documentation? Or an ID to go to the poll, for that matter?

So ask yourself: Does the Voter Suppression bill actually protect your vote? Or does it just make it harder to vote, if you have to have a copy of your birth certificate just to register? Are Kansas teachers to blame if election turn out is low in 2012? Or should we blame a law that neglects the fact that one in eleven Americans don't have a photo ID?

Somali nationals aren't hijacking our democracy--Kris Kobach's Voter Suppression law is.