Kansas loses legal fight over voting law passed in 2021

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has lost a legal fight over one of the voting laws that its Republican-led Legislature passed in the wake of the 2020 election. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil ruled Thursday that it was unconstitutional to make it a crime for groups to include voter’s name, address and other information on advance ballot applications. Two national nonprofit groups, VoteAmerica and the Voter Participation Center, sued after two voting laws were passed in 2021 over the veto of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The groups argued that there is a higher response rate when the group prefills the applications. But the state countered that the groups’ mailing efforts led to a flood of duplicate applications.