Republican lawmakers in Kansas enlisted their majority in the House and Senate to override the governor’s Save Kansas Act veto.
Also known as House Bill 2437, the Save Kansas Act prohibits voter registration through organizations, such as Get Out the Vote and limits online voter registration to government websites that have a .gov domain extension.
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed the bill last week on April 8. The next day, the Kansas Senate approved it 28-12 and the Kansas House passed it 80-43.
The Kansas legislature is currently made up of 88 Republicans and 37 Democrats. GOP lawmakers were able to override Kelly’s veto with a two-thirds majority.
Kansas was among the first states to adopt a proof-of-citizenship law 15 years ago. However, in 2018, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson reversed the law, ruling that it was unconstitutional.
Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Utah all enacted proof of citizenship voting bills in the past few weeks, while President Donald Trump’s federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act remains stalled in the U.S. Senate.
The Save Kansas Act also provides for voter roll maintenance tools such as DMV change-of-address records and wider access to the Social Security Administration Death Master File.
Kelly further stated that the additional tools risk purging the voter rolls of rightfully eligible voters.
“This legislation directs certain state agencies to provide the personal information—including name, date of birth, residential address, and the last four digits of the social security number—of public assistance benefit recipients to the Secretary of State’s Office, even though disclosure of this information may be prohibited under federal law,” she said.
Schwab, who is campaigning for governor, calls the new law his primary election policy initiative.
“The legislation sets consistent, statewide standards for voter roll maintenance, including twice-yearly de-duplication, quarterly review of DMV residence data, comparison with the federal SAVE database with reporting to the Legislature, and the use of additional federal and state data sources to support accurate list maintenance,” he said.
