Round One goes to Kansas in the state’s effort to have the Election Assistance Commission revised the federal form for Kansas to permit an inquiry into citizenship. U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren said Friday that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission must make a decision by Jan. 17, saying the matter had been unreasonably delayed and could begin to interfere with Kansas’ election cycle. Melgren also told a courtroom full of lawyers, who had been arguing the issue all morning, that he would retain jurisdiction over the case, anticipating that no matter what the federal commission decides, “someone in this room won’t like it.”
“A U.S. District Court judge in Wichita has ordered a federal agency to act on a request by Kansas and Arizona to modify a national voter registration form to reflect the states’ proof-of-citizenship laws.