A Kansas law that makes it a felony to impersonate an elections official is vague enough that voting rights advocates can pursue a legal challenge, the state’s highest court ruled Friday, reviving a lawsuit that a lower court dismissed.
The Kansas Supreme Court’s decision came in a challenge to a 2021 law that critics say hinders voter registration drives. Four groups argued in the lawsuit that their members could be prosecuted even if they were clear that they were not election officials but others still mistakenly believed they were. Backers of the law have scoffed at that argument.
The groups are pursuing another lawsuit against other elections restrictions that the Republican-led Legislature passed in 2021 over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto amid false claims by some in the GOP that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t valid. One of the groups, Loud Light, said the law at issue in Friday’s ruling led it to stop registering voters even though it registered 10,000 in 2020.
Anytime anyone scoffs at the idea Republicans will take the extreme right view of a vague law needs to just point at Roe and the states will 6weeks abortion bans.