Election Commissioner: 4200 Sedgwick Co. voters affected by two-tiered system

UPDATE - 5:35 p.m. - About 4,200 Sedgwick County voters who registered at the Department of Motor Vehicles without providing proof of citizenship will have their ballot counted for the primary election.

A Shawnee County judge handed down the ruling late Friday afternoon.

Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman says she's unsure whether they will use provisional ballots or need to actively show up in the poll book. She says she's waiting for more instructions on how to proceed.

She says at this time she has not seen the provisional ballots and does not know if those affected by the ruling may have voted early. If they did, she's also unsure how they would be affected.

Lehman says the ruling currently only applies to the primary election set for Tuesday.

She says she and her staff are on standby to come back to work Friday night or Saturday in order to make ballots available for all voters by the primary election day.

She says changing registration and preparing the poll books for print could mean 30-40 hours of additional work for her and her employees.

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UPDATE - 4:35 p.m. - Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he will not appeal a county judge's ruling that the Kansas must count the votes in state and local races of people who have registered without citizenship documents.

Kobach says that as a practical matter it is too late to appeal before the state's primary election next Tuesday.

But he says the ruling by Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks, "essentially knocks a huge loophole in that (citizenship requirement) law."

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UPDATE - 4:30 p.m. - A county judge has ruled that Kansas must count potentially thousands of votes in state and local races from people who've registered without providing citizenship documents.

Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks issued a temporary order Friday to block a rule from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The order came four days before Tuesday's primary election.

The rule applies to people registering to vote at state motor vehicle offices without documenting their U.S. citizenship as required by a 2013 state law.

A federal judge ruled in May that federal law allowed them to vote in federal races, but Kobach's rule said their votes in state and local contests would not be counted.

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A Kansas judge will consider blocking election officials from tossing out potentially thousands of votes in state and local races from people who've registered without providing citizenship documents.

Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks was having a hearing Friday on a request from the American Civil Liberties Union to block a rule from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The hearing comes four days before Tuesday's primary election.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit earlier this month after a state board allowed Kobach to impose the rule. It applies to people who register to vote at state motor vehicle offices without providing proof of their U.S. citizenship as required by a 2013 state law.

They'll receive full ballots, but only their votes for federal offices are to be counted.

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