TOPEKA, KS — In League of Women Voters v. Schwab, the Kansas Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Kansas’ ballot harvesting restrictions, limiting collection to no more than ten ballots, and the authority of the legislature to require signature verification for mail ballots.
“In Kansas, liberal activists will not be harvesting ballots by the bushel come Election Day. Nor will they stop their duly elected state legislature from imposing reasonable requirements like signature matching. As long as activists are going to flood the courts with challenges, we will continue to vigorously defend elections to the ultimate legal authority in each state. This is the new normal. RITE also congratulates Kansas on its effective defense of these commonsense election integrity laws and was proud to play a part in today’s victory.”
– Derek Lyons, Presiden to RITE
RITE, in its compelling brief to the court, rejected the dangerous notion that ballot harvesting is a fundamental right: “[T]here is no right to avoid verifying one’s identity or to have one’s completed advance ballot delivered by an individual who gathers such ballots en masse.” Indeed, the court’s opinion today states that “[r]estrictions on the number of advance ballots one person may deliver does not, in isolation, inhibit speech at all.”
In its brief, RITE argued:
- The court of appeals’ approach “is antithetical to Kansas history and the Kansas Constitution. Moreover, it would produce absurd results and arrogate to the judiciary powers constitutionally assigned to the Legislature.”
- “Every state supreme court to have weighed in on the issue has rejected the rigid strict-scrutiny approach advanced by the court of appeals.” “In other words, the court of appeal’s decision in this case is a national aberration.”
- “The need for robust regulation is especially acute when mail-in voting is at issue, for, as this Court has said, ‘it must be conceded that voting by mail increases the . . . opportunity for fraud.’”
Read the full brief at RITEUSA.org.
