Kobach plan for Trump included federal voting laws changes

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A Kansas official who later became vice chairman of President Donald Trump's commission on election fraud drafted a proposal for Trump to change federal voter registration laws to promote proof-of-citizenship requirements by states, an unsealed federal court document showed Thursday.

The proposal was part of a "strategic plan" for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security prepared by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and carried by him into a meeting in November with Trump, then the president-elect. It was among three proposals designed to "stop aliens from voting."


U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ordered a highly-edited version of the document unsealed Thursday in a voting-rights lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. Robinson also ordered the unsealing of a second document, prepared by Kobach and circulated within the Kansas secretary of state's office, showing the text of proposed changes to federal law.

The changes would allow Kansas and other states to fully enforce laws requiring new voters to provide papers documenting their U.S. citizenship when registering. The ACLU's lawsuit, filed in February 2016, challenges how Kansas administers its law and so far is keeping Kansas from enforcing the requirement for voters who register at motor vehicle offices.

Kobach has championed the proof-of-citizenship requirement as an anti-fraud measure, while the ACLU and other critics say it suppresses turnout.

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Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said the documents show Kobach had a plan to amend federal law "from the beginning," calling it the "end game" for Trump's commission.

"It just goes to show, I mean, what lengths he'll go to conceal his plans to take his voter suppression schemes national," Ho added.

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The second document contained five proposed changes to the National Voter Registration Act, two of which were blacked out in the copy unsealed Thursday. One item proposed adding a section saying, "Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a state from requiring documentary proof of citizenship from any applicant."

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