The Kobach Voting Rights Trial: Live Updates

[DonViejo]

By Tierney Sneed | March 5, 2018 6:14 pm

Welcome to TPM’s live-blog of the Kris Kobach voting rights trial.

TPM reporter Tierney Sneed, who anchors our voting rights coverage, is in Kansas City, Kansas, where, starting Tuesday, a federal judge will hear Fish v. Kobach, a challenge to the state’s controversial voting law.

The law requires people registering to vote to show documentary proof that they’re a U.S. citizen. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who also ran President Trump’s short-lived voter fraud commission, claims the proof-of-citizenship requirement is needed to stop non-citizens from voting. The ACLU, which is challenging the law, says the rate of non-citizen voting is tiny, and that the requirement violates federal voting law by making it too difficult to register, especially for racial minorities. The outcome could have national implications.

The trial will last at least through the end of the week, and Tierney will be on the scene throughout. We’ll be updating this page with the latest news multiple times per day, and you can find Tierney’s longer-form coverage of the trial on the main site. You can also follow her on Twitter at @Tierney_Megan



March 6, 2018, 10:38 a.m. CT — “Taking a bazooka to a fly:” Opening statements kick off trial: After some motions were addressed, the Kansas voter registration proof-of-citizenship trial began in earnest with opening statements Tuesday morning.

The ACLU’s Dale Ho, an attorney for the plaintiffs, was first at the lectern. He laid out the three-pronged argument that the challengers he is representing are making: That the proof-of-citizenship requirement disenfranchises eligible voters, that there is no evidence of a systemic issue of mass non-citizen voting, and that there are other ways that Kansas can keep its voter rolls clean.

The Live Blog is here:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/kobach-voting-rights-trial/live-updates

[Gothmog]

1. This is an important trial