WICHITA, Kan. - For over a century, some in American politics have attempted to keep certain groups of people from voting. Traditionally, going back to ancient Rome, the only people who could vote were those who owned property and the people who owned the property were men. But over the years, the United States passed laws and constitutional amendments to expand voting rights to other groups of people. In spite of Jim Crow laws and other similar means of disenfranchisement, we are generally quite proud of our efforts in suffrage, though the reality is we have a very long way to go.
Last week, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a new measure to "crack down" on undocumented workers. It requires, among other things, for immigrants to carry their papers on them at all time that prove they are in the country legally. As these papers are important legal papers, it is dangerous to carry them around all the time. Kansas Secretary of State candidate Kris Kobach says this will apply only to immigrants and not US citizens as it is a federal crime to say one is a citizen when they are not. This is a curious statement.
People who push for employer use of the E-Verify system say undocumented workers routinely fake identification. What stops police from not believing a Latino from saying he is a US citizen and taking him into custody anyway? This is already happening in Phoenix.
But there is more to this law than the stated purpose of preventing undocumented residents from committing crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, even though immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes, regardless of their immigrant status, than native-born Americans. Perhaps Kobach himself says it best an amnesty bill combined with the recently-passed health insurance reform will add 10.8 million voters to the rolls, all of whom are presumably Democrats and want "free" health care. These arguments almost always devolve into an "Us v. Them" argument: citizens deserve things before non-citizens. Why all this pitch about citizens and undocumented immigrants, often ignoring the immigrants who went through the expensive and incredibly arduous process of immigrating to the US?
Because it's never about what it's "about".
10.8 million Latino voters scares Kobach and Tea Party-goers, a largely white male group. Disenfranchisement is something hard-right Republicans and Kobach do very, very well. And it's something Governor Brewer also knows how to do very well: when she was the Arizona Secretary of State, she purged over 100,000 voters, largely Hispanic, from the voting rolls. And even though she purged all these voters, she prosecuted no one for registering illegally under federal law.
A federal investigation lasting 2 years focusing on the Southwest found not one single prosecutable case of voter fraud. Greg Plast covers the case in Arizona much better than I can. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas stated, "Democrats want more illegal immigrants in the country because they are a potential source of votes they hope will contribute to a permanent Democratic majority."
But this should be of grave and immediate concern to Kansans. Kobach is convinced this law is fair, constitutional, and necessary. Of course he would: he helped write it. He said, "this law threads the needle perfectly." The one that requires people who "look" undocumented to present papers proving otherwise? How does one "look" undocumented? And while Kobach says the law specifically forbids racial profiling, will law enforcement officers really be looking for white undocumented residents (or do they come through the Canadian border)?
Along with Arizona's requirements that people registering to vote prove they are citizens when registering, this measure further pushes Latino residents and citizens - including the ones who cannot be deported for any reason - to the edges and out of community life. And pushing Latino citizens out of community life means (in the eyes of the Tea Party, at least) more conservative Republican wins.
Remember, Kobach wants to help introduce similar measures in Kansas. He runs around saying ACORN is committing massive voter fraud in Kansas, fraud that no one other than Kobach and his "sources" can find, including people investigating the claims. Kobach wants to disenfranchise voters right here in Kansas. This isn't a problem for some other state that a court will handle: this is our future.
As Americans, we generally take a positive view of our electoral system. It seems as if all citizens can vote and vote easily, conveniently. While this is true for most citizens, it is not true for all of us. Our system intentionally and accidentally leaves many people out. Participation is discouraged, and even when one does vote, our votes seem not to matter. We ought to be doing everything we can to encourage more US citizens to vote and to have more options when voting. We should not follow the paranoid path of Kris Kobach and limit voting only to those who will vote the way we want them to.
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