WTF!? League of women stops voter registration drive in Kansas to avoid being jailed???

[triron]

https://kansasreflector.com/2021/07/01/kansas-groups-halt-voter-registration-drives-to-avoid-being-jailed-under-new-law/

This is nuts.

[deminks]

1. This is nuts. This is Kansas.

The rethuglicans are in charge and every one of them is an insurrectionist. Every one.

I wonder if the judge in Topeka was waiting for the SCOTUS ruling, which will doom the GOTV groups for sure.

[paleotn]

2. Welcome to the Fascist States of Amurka.

[triron]

4. I am thinking more and more there needs to be a blue coalition of states to form a new nation.

Those leftover will fail utterly.

[denbot]

3. Yeah, nothing to see here..

Critical Race Theory, don’cha’ know?

[Hortensis]

5. They'll get back to it once the legalities have been tended to

so that they don't risk arrest by not conforming to the new law. The law does not say groups can't register voters. It sets traps they have to identify and avoid.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. So Kansas really has outlawed being knowledgeable

The groups filed a lawsuit over new election-related restrictions enacted by the Legislature this session, and a judge has yet to act on a request for a temporary injunction to block enforcement of the laws until the case is resolved. One of the provisions makes it a crime to engage in activity that “gives the appearance of being an election official.”

Without clarity from the court, the organizations argue in court filings, there is a “serious risk” that someone will mistake people who are knowledgeable about voter registration as election officials.
...
Pedro Irigonegaray and other attorneys argued on behalf of the groups in court filings. They said there is significant overlap between the work of advocates and election officials who both actively encourage Kansans to vote and help them understand the voting process.

Plaintiffs can’t be sure they will never be perceived as election officials, they argue, and past experiences indicate this mistaken identity will happen no matter what they do to make it clear they are not election officials.

Kansas law already made it illegal to represent oneself as a public official. The new law appears to be more vague about what would constitute a crime.

Yeah, the Republicans made it vague on purpose. They want to be able to find someone to say "but they knew so much about elections, I thought they must be an official!!!!"