U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
Out-of-state activists sued Kansas because the state required that voters themselves, and not unsolicited third-party organizations must fill out their own applications for absentee ballots. The plaintiffs challenged this rule as an attack on the First Amendment. But Kansas’s law safeguards election administration by ensuring that state election officials are not flooded with applications riddled with errors. RITE explained that the First Amendment does not apply to filling out government forms on behalf of strangers. States must be allowed to enforce their rules and regulations that safeguard the election unless they are entirely unreasonable or impose a substantial burden on the right to vote. Kansas’ law does neither.
On November 12, 2024, the 10th Circuit delivered a powerful victory for election integrity by overturning an erroneous lower court ruling striking down the prohibition on pre-filled absentee ballot applications. The case was remanded to the district court for further proceedings on one claim.
