If you read only the headline from the Topeka Capital Journal, you’d think Secretary of State Kris Kobach was admitting his error and making sure that the federal court ruling — one which vacated his voter suppression tactics — would be followed.
Once you get a bit deeper into the article, however, it becomes clear nothing of the sort is occurring. The problem? Kobach isn’t so sure what the meaning of the word “immediately” means.
Robinson said the law was unconstitutional and — because Kobach has a “well-documented history of avoiding this court’s orders” — explicitly directed him to instruct counties to comply with her ruling.
Danedri Herbert, a spokeswoman for Kobach, said it wasn’t clear how soon those instructions should be made.
“I think ‘immediately’ is kind of open to interpretation,” she said.
Now it appears, the Secretary of State is providing conflicting information to county clerks, further muddying the water of voter registration practices.
Nancy McCarter, the county clerk and election official for Pottawatomie County, said Caskey advised clerks “to continue as we have been.” If someone had registered to vote Wednesday morning, she said, the individual would have needed a birth certificate or other document.
Saline County Clerk Jamie Allen said she hadn’t read the judge’s order and was waiting for information because state officials “give us our standards.”
Others, like Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew, understood the judge’s demands and scrubbed references to proof of citizenship requirements from online.
“As county clerk,” Shew said, “I am responsible for the citizens of our county and not to the SOS office. Therefore, we made the decision that served those citizens as a response to what the judge clearly stated in her ruling.”
That’s right. Thanks to a misunderstanding of the word “immediately” Kobach’s office is providing confusing information to counties — at the time when Kansas entities are working on voter registration services.
Because this may get lost, I wanted to make sure that someone in the Secretary of State’s office had this: