Kaitlin Parks
Lantern Staff
In April 2011, Gov. Sam Brownback signed the Kansas Secure and Safe Elections (S.A.F.E.) Act. This law enforces that photo identification is required of all in-person voters in every election. The law also requires the inclusion of a copy of or the number on a form of photo ID for all voters submitting advance ballots by mail. As of January 1, 2013, the law introduced the requirement of any person registering to vote, to submit proof of U.S. citizenship.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach brought this into law into action because of alleged voter ID fraud in the 2012 presidential election.
“This law will improve voting security and state’s rights” said Kobach in a 2013 Newsmakers Television interview with Nancy Lewis.
After reading this, most people would ask the question “What’s wrong with that, and how does it affect me?” The answer is it’s not going to affect you unless you are in poverty or are a minority. There is already a significantly lower number of minorities that vote in the United States, and this law decreases the number even more. In the 2014 United States Census, the electoral profile on Kansas shows the difference between voters in the United States and Kansas based on ethnicity.
The outcome was that 81.3 percent of Kansas voters were Caucasian and 66.3 percent of voters were Caucasian in the United States. Only 6.2 percent of African Americans voted in Kansas and 12.5 percent of African Americans voted in the United States. This percent shows that half the amount of African Americans voted in Kansas just two years after the S.A.F.E Act was put into action.
This law is dramatically decreasing the number of minorities that are already not inclined to vote, from voting at all. Many people of color do not have driver’s licenses or photo ID’s. and may not be able to vote in the coming elections. This is because many of these people live in poverty or do not have the need to possess a driver’s license. People of color are more likely to not own a car and ride the public transportation such as buses or rail-systems. They are also more likely to only carry a student ID, or employee ID, which do not require proof of citizenship. Found in a 2006 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, as many as 25 percent of African Americans do not possess any form of photo identification. Congress has to come to the realization that no progress is being made by the S.A.F.E act but are actually going backwards in civil rights of U.S. citizens and minorities.
