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Kansas Liberty: 12 May 2008
But will Sebelius sign?
Voter ID bill sent to Governor
Kansas voters will be required to provide photo identification before voting, if Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signs a bill sent to her this week.
HB 2019, the voter identification bill, was approved by a 27-3 bi-partisan majority in the Kansas Senate and by a 67-56 margin in the House. Sebelius has not announced whether she will sign the bill.
The new law will require voters, beginning in 2010, to show photo
identification before voting either at the polls or in
advance. Though the requirement doesn’t take effect for two years,
voters will be asked to produce identification during this election
season.
“They’ll be asking this year, just to get people used to the idea,” said Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, a bill sponsor.
Huelskamp said the bill also requires the state to provide free photo identification for low-income Kansans and welfare recipients. Huelskamp said the cost of providing free ID to those who qualify will be minimal, since almost all Kansans of voting age have a driver’s license or other state-issued ID.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently declared a similar law passed in Indiana constitutional, but an attempt by Democrats to block voter ID in Missouri is attracting sympathetic coverage in national newspapers, such as the New York Times, throwing Sebelius' approval of the Kansas bill into uncertainty.
HB 2019 also establishes the first Saturday of February 2012 as the date of the state’s next presidential primary.
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