Your Economy OT - Conspiracy, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, War

[arizona1]

After two months of trying in Kansas, My Wife still can't Vote (Updated: Some Questions Answered)

It seems silly, especially for the poltically interested, but here we are, October of 2014, with a major election coming up, and my wife still can't vote.

In the past, this hasn't been something we have worried about - while I may be politically active, my wife has in the past not had a great interest in voting because there weren't candidates in Kansas who seemed worth a vote. Her non-vote, was, in the end her vote. I on the other hand voted in everything. Spring elections, recalls, off-years.. if there was a vote for the county dog catcher, I'd go.

In trying to register my wife, however, all we've run into is hurdles...

Kris Kobach's method was supposed to be simple. Email in your identification. For my wife, this identification would be her passport. Our first few attempts did not go so well:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

[e-mail]
retry timeout exceeded

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------
------ The body of the message is 874498 characters long; only the first
------ 106496 or so are included here.

I’m re-attaching her Passport which should meet all requirements.

Well, OK. The email address to receive your proof of identification doesn't work so well. My wife has another minor issue this year.. she has recently lost a great deal of vision, and so making the trek down to do this isn't as easy. If, after surgery, her vision doesn't improve then she probably is forced to surrender her drivers license at 40.
None of this, of course, matters in Kansas. Despite the fact that for 15 years she's paid property tax on her vehicle, has been a married filer with a Kansan, and was naturalized as a child.. or that we can send in a passport..

As of this morning, 2 months since we started trying to get her registered.. she still can't vote.

Thank you, Kris Kobach. The goal of the Kansas voter law is simple: make things difficult enough that people will give up.

This last week, we used the 'text' system and I've texted in her passport twice this week, along with her date of birth and address just in case. While that also hasn't been successful, since her registration was submitted and they are supposedly 'just waiting' on this confirmation we've sent in about a dozen times now, there may be hope we still get her a ballot to vote on in November.

But I'm not holding my breath.

http://www.msnbc.com/...

Donate to Jean Schodorf, let's end Kris Kobach's run as Secretary of State, and protect voting rights in Kansas.

https://secure.actblue.com/...

1:31 PM PT: Some questions answered

Some have offered suggestions, frankly, we will get her on the voter roll, we will just have to go down in person and do it, because the internet bit isn't working as planned, and after texting the image (as promoted on their website and elsewhere) hasn't worked for the last two weeks, her registration is still 'in suspense'.

Some have pointed out "what about a drivers license, etc." In Kansas, these are not considered a proof of citizenship, which is require for voters to register if they are not on the current active rolls.

Scott Morgan, a candidate ran into this:

http://www.kansas.com/...

And this is covered in the State of Kansas rules here:

http://www.voteks.org/...

To get on the rolls, she has to provide a proof of citizenship, which for her would be naturalization documents or her passport, of which we've sent her passport in digitally a few times (successful and not) over the last few weeks, and it hasn't updated. We'll probably make our trip down there on Monday and I'll take some time away from work and clear it up.

The point really isn't that she has no shot of voting.. the point is that these rules have made it difficult for people to register, thus discouraging people from trying to vote.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/18/1337512/-After-two-months-of-trying-in-Kansas-My-Wife-still-can-t-Vote