FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Contact: Scott Morgan
staterankings@yahoo.com
ScottMorganForSOS.org • StopKobach.org
For Kobach, Kansans Not Being Able to Vote is Not Disenfranchised but “Silly”
Orwell’s Big Brother Would be Impressed
George Orwell’s Big Brother would be proud of Kris Kobach. In Orwell’s book 1984, Big Brother looks down menacingly from a poster over the words “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
In that same vein, when asked about Kansans not being able to vote because they haven’t provided enough paperwork, Kansans’ own Big Brother, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, responded “No one is disenfranchised — any person can vote a full ballot by providing proof of citizenship. The notion a person is disenfranchised because they have to provide proof of citizenship is a silly one.”
Kobach's Republican primary opponent, Scott Morgan responded, "Like many Kansans, I had always thought the word 'disenfranchised' meant to deprive someone of their right to vote. However, apparently in Kobachian language not letting select Kansans vote for governor, secretary of state or any other nonfederal election in Kansas is not depriving them of their right to vote but rather simply protecting their right to vote."
Kobach's comments were in response to his announced plan to comply with a federal court order that Kansas must accept the federal voter registration form for federal offices. This affects fewer than 100 Kansans and does not include more than 18,000 Kansans who used a state form but provided the same basic information as those using the federal form. However, the state form users are not covered by the court order so Kobach (aka Super Protector of State Sovereignty) announced no plans to give them the same right to at least vote in the federal offices.
"If creating multiple classes of voters is so easy, why not give all Kansans who have submitted these forms the same rights?" Morgan asked. "Kobach needs to explain why 18,000 Kansans who used a state form are not as worthy as fewer than 100 who used the federal form. Multiple classes of voters make no sense but keeping the 18,000 Kansans in voter purgatory really makes no sense."
Morgan noted that Kobach may claim that the law Kobach created may not give him the authority to declare voters eligible without a federal court order but that is just acknowledging that he created a mess that unnecessarily changed how Kansans have registered for 150 years. Kansans are now paying the price for Kobach's fear of new voters.
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