Did Hazleton's lead attorney illegally suppress votes?

This is rich. The story is a little over a month old but needs to be posted. Kris Kobach is the lead attorney for the city of Hazleton in defending itself in our lawsuit challenging their anti-immigrant ordinance as unconstitutional. (That's worked out pretty well for the city.)

Kobach also happens to be the chair of the Kansas Republican Party. It seems around the holidays Señor Kobach sent a gleeful email to GOP supporters in Kansas gloating about the party's success in "caging" voters.

To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!

Caging voters is a ploy in which a party sends registered mail to people asking them to respond to verify their address. If they do not respond, the party then goes to the bureau of elections and challenges the person's voter registration. This is typically used against the poor, minorities, and college students.

Trouble is, it's illegal. Oops. In the 1980s, a consent decree banned this practice.

Apparently, the exact method used impacts the legality of the practice, so we cannot say for sure that the Kansas tactic was illegal. You can find more coverage at Blue Tide Rising, here and here. Slate.com also has a thorough explanation of caging.

Aaah, it's an election year. And in some corners, it's that special time to keep minorities, the poor, and other marginalized folks away from the ballot box.

Andy in Harrisburg