Appeals Court protected Kansans’ right to vote. Kobach, Hawkins and the GOP hate that | Opinion

The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday took steps to protect your right to vote, as it should.

The court ruled that Shawnee County District Judge Teresa L. Watson erred when she dismissed a case challenging the constitutionality of two aspects of Kansas election law — a requirement that county officials match signatures on mail ballot envelopes to the signature on file in the election office, and a limitation of 10 on the number of ballots a person can deliver for others.

The appeals court sent the case back with the instructions that she reconsider it under the doctrine of “strict scrutiny.”

That’s kind of a big deal.

In general, an act of the Legislature is presumed constitutional unless whoever’s challenging it can prove otherwise. But under the strict scrutiny test, the burden shifts to the state to prove that infringing peoples’ rights serves a compelling state interest and that whatever remedy they’ve concocted is narrowly tailored to meet that interest.

Sending the case back to Watson revives it and requires that she hear evidence, which she didn’t do the first time around.

On signature verification, the plaintiffs raise two compelling issues: 1) That people’s signatures change, and the way yours looks now could be substantially different compared to when you registered to vote, and 2) signature matching is a subjective judgment that varies from county to county, and even among different examiners in the same county.

On the question of how many completed ballots one person can deliver, the plaintiffs argued that the law violates the constitutional rights of free speech and free association. It does.

Kris Kobach, attorney general and commander in chief of the war on voting, issued a statement attacking the appeals court ruling as “the most radical election law decision in the country.”

“Having election officials make sure that it is your signature on your advance ballot doesn’t hurt your right to vote,” Kobach wrote. “It protects your vote from being stolen by someone else.”

Most people would agree secure voting is good.

But there are better ways to do it than having half-trained election workers squinting at ballot envelopes all day. Bear in mind that ballot-return envelopes are already pre-printed with the voter’s name, address and a unique ID number, so it’s practically impossible to forge even one, much less hundreds at a time. Starting next year, all ballots will be printed on special watermarked paper.

Kobach didn’t address the question of ballot delivery.

His spokesperson apparently isn’t taking my calls these days. I can’t say I blame her. Questions are hard.

You see, helping deliver voters’ completed absentee ballots to the election office used to be called “helping.”

But these days, the anti-voter wing of the Republican Party has invented a more sinister, if completely inaccurate, term for it: “ballot harvesting.”

They never really explain what that means, or why it should be illegal, but it sounds really bad, which is all they care about.

Speaking of The Party, they’re really in a tizzy after Friday’s decision.

“It’s just the latest salvo by the woke left to destroy the sanctity of the ballot box,” thundered House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita.

The “woke left” in this case includes the League of Women Voters, the Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Independent Living Resource Center in Topeka.

Caution: Do not play a drinking game based on every time Hawkins says “woke.” You will die.

And then there’s Mike Brown, Kansas Republican Party chairman and chief conspiracy theorist. His response was something something “liberal agenda” and “activist judges.” He said The Party stands with Hawkins and Kobach.

Fortunately for Kansas voters, Kobach’s made a career of losing cases like this one.

As I said at the start, the Kansas Court of Appeals took steps to protect your right to vote.

The Legislature, our attorney general and the Kansas Republican Party really ought to try it sometime.

Dion Lefler: 316-268-6527, @DionKansas