Only 73 of an estimated 17,000 voters affected by recent court rulings cast ballots in the Kansas primary election. Those Kansans registered to vote at the DMV but didn’t provide a citizenship document required under state law.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach and other state officials certified the election results on Thursday. Kobach believes the turnout was so low because many of those affected voters may have already moved.
“A very high percentage – we don’t exactly, but we’ve done some sampling– a very large percentage of them are people who have probably already moved away from the state of Kansas or have moved to a different county, and so therefore that voting identity is no longer really valid,” he says.
Lawsuits have caused several changes in the status of those voters: First, they couldn’t vote. Then they could only vote in some races. Days before the primary, a judge ruled they could vote in all races. ACLU attorneys believe the turnout for those voters was low because many of them were probably confused by the legal wrangling.
