This is the written testimony we are delivering at the hearing on SB 37 in Topeka on Tuesday, February 7. We are opposing Secretary Kris Kobach's bid to create an unconstitutional two-tier voting system in Kansas. You can download our testimony here.

Testimony to Senate Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government Chair, Sen. Elaine Bowers
Hearing: Tuesday, February 7, 2017, 9:30 am, Room 142-S

Position – OPPOSE SB 37

Chairperson Bowers, and Members of the Committee, 

The MainStream Coalition strongly opposes SB 37, which is designed to disenfranchise Kansas voters in the name of fighting inexistent voter fraud.

Sec. Kobach has claimed, on numerous occasions, that voter fraud is a rampant threat to our democracy, both nationally and in Kansas. And yet, despite being given unprecedented powers, his office has been unable to turn up any significant case of voter fraud, especially fraud involving non-citizens seeking to vote illegally. Of the millions of votes cast in Kansas the last few years, Sec. Kobach has prosecuted only a handful, and none for this most heinous crime, trying to pass as a citizen.

The MainStream Coalition stands opposed to restrictions to voting rights, and in this case, even more emphatically. In the absence of any significant data showing voter fraud, all this bill does is arbitrarily disenfranchise Kansans, removing their most basic right, and duty, as a citizen of our state. Until there is evidence, the citizens of Kansas deserve to be presumed innocent, not caught in this senseless drag net.

We urge you to turn this bill down, and protect the unalienable rights of tens of thousands of Kansans who will have their voice taken from them if this legislation should become law.

We urge you to oppose SB 37. 

Thank you,

Brandi Fisher
Executive Director, MainStream Coalition