It seems like Kansas Republicans will go as low as they need to in their attempt to pass the constitutional amendment to change the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected.
First, Republicans in the Kansas Legislature tried to suppress the vote on the amendment by placing the question on the Aug. 4 primary election ballot, instead of the general election ballot, just as they did on the abortion amendment in 2022.
Statistics confirm what everyone knows: Voter turnout in primary elections is generally less than half of the turnout in a general election.
And unaffiliated voters have to make a special effort to vote since the amendment is the only item on their ballot unless they are willing to declare a party on primary election day — and most do not. Hopefully, this sorry attempt at suppression will backfire on them as it did in 2022.
Second, the Republican proponents of the amendment have labeled it the “Right to Vote” amendment and yard signs and billboards read “Protect Your Right to Vote.”
This language is clearly intended to mislead and confuse voters.
The amendment has nothing to do with your right to vote. When women and people of color were fighting for the right to vote, they were fighting to be able to register to vote and to vote at polling places without intimidation. That is what the “right to vote” means.
Kansas Republicans do not really care about protecting your right to vote; otherwise, they would not be passing election measures every year to make it harder for people to register and harder for people to use mail ballot voting.
The language on the yard sign and billboard is misleading and confusing for a second reason: Voters might think the proponents are actually Democrats because the Democratic party is generally the party that has tried to protect the right to vote by passing measures to make registering to vote and voting as easy as possible through the motor voter law, advance voting, drop off ballot boxes, and no excuse mail ballots.
If voters are confused by this and do not read the ballot measure or explanation, they may vote “Yes” in error.
Third, the Republican proponents of the amendment want voters to believe that they currently have no say in who are Kansas Supreme Court justices.
That is clearly untrue because Kansas voters vote on the retention of justices and can vote them out if they are unhappy with their performance.
Lastly, it is not the people of Kansas who are demanding to elect Kansas Supreme Court justices.
The amendment was spearheaded by Kris Kobach and Ty Masterson who are unhappy with decisions of the court based upon its interpretation of the provisions of the Kansas Constitution relating to the funding of public schools and a woman’s right to choose.
Since these Republican leaders have not been able to persuade the people of Kansas to amend the state constitution, they are now attempting to elect their own justices.
The amendment is also supported by Charles Koch and Leonard Leo who want Supreme Court justices they can influence to further their own agendas.
