Kansas Agrees to Permanently Stop Enforcing Law That Criminalized Voter Engagement
The state of Kansas agreed to permanently stop enforcing a law that undermined the work of voter registration organizations by imposing criminal penalties on individuals whose actions could be construed as conduct that would be undertaken by an election official.
The now-blocked “false representation provision” — enacted by the GOP Legislature as part of an omnibus 2021 voter suppression law — made it a felony for an individual to knowingly “[r]epresent[] oneself as an election official” or “engage[] in conduct that gives the appearance of being an election official.”
Voting rights advocates alleged in a legal challenge that the so-called “false representation provision” was overly vague and posed an undue risk to civic organizations, which often engage in voter registration activities that overlap with actions election officials might take.
In a May 31 ruling, the Kansas Supreme Court concluded that the provision likely violates the state constitution’s right to free speech, after which a trial court issued a temporary injunction blocking the statute ahead of the November 2024 election.
Today’s order agreed upon by state officials fully resolves the litigation brought by the League of Women Voters of Kansas and other groups to invalidate the false representation provision.
However, the lawsuit will proceed on another claim challenging the state’s strict signature matching rules for mail-in ballots, which the plaintiffs contend violates voters’ rights under the Kansas Constitution.