Protect Kansas Rights

November 3, 2026 General Election · Kansas Ballot Measure

Vote NO on the Citizenship Voting Requirement Amendment

Don't let the fuzzy language fool you. This is a voter suppression amendment. Kansas already requires people to be U.S. citizens in order to vote — in the very first sentence defining eligibility. Here is a link to the language defining eligibility to vote:Kansas Constitution, Article 5.

Why This Amendment Is Bad for Kansas and Kansas Voters

  • It changes voting from a RIGHT to a PRIVILEGE — a privilege that legislators can limit any way they like. Today, our constitution says every citizen is a qualified voter — a right you already have. The amendment flips that to say no one is a qualified voter unless they meet certain conditions. It shifts the burden: instead of the state having to justify taking voting rights away, future voters could have to prove they qualify. That makes it easier for lawmakers to add unnecessary barriers to voting — like documentation of proof of citizenship (DPOC).
  • DPOC makes it hard to register to vote, and that is the whole point: voter suppression. This is part of a national playbook being pushed by groups that want to reduce the number, and most importantly, the diversity, of voters. With DPOC, in order to register you have to provide:
    • a photo ID, plus
    • a US passport, or
    • a birth certificate, or
    • naturalization papers
    • If names don't match the photo ID — as is the case for millions of women who take their husband's name in marriage — women have to provide marriage licenses as well.
    • A REAL ID alone (a driver's license with a star on it) will not work in Kansas.
  • Moreover, many DPOC laws, including the national SAVE Act, require people to register in personand do so whenever they change their names or their addresses. This would make it difficult for many Kansans — especially rural Kansans — to stay eligible.
  • Whose votes does the Kansas legislature want to suppress? Women, new young voters, older voters, lower-income voters, and voters of color. Nationally, about 21 million citizens — 9% of eligible voters — are not able to quickly locate a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers to prove citizenship. Do you have these handy? In order to register, voters would have to order these, which can take months and cost hundreds of dollars, to simply prove they are citizens. Research shows the burden to provide DPOC falls hardest on the groups noted above.
  • The November ballot amendment is designed to enable the legislature to impose DPOC in Kansas. This already happened once but was blocked by federal courts. Do you remember the 2011 Kansas SAFE Act? It canceled or suspended the registrations of over 31,000 Kansans before it was blocked by a federal court in 2018. At trial, Kansas's own evidentiary record showed that only 39 noncitizens had actually registered to vote in nearly two decades (since 1999). That mismatch — large numbers of citizens kept from voting (31,000) versus a handful (39) of actual violations — was central to the federal courts striking the Kansas SAFE Act down. But the SAFE law still exists, and could potentially be re-enacted if the November 3 amendment passes.
  • The stated reason for the November amendment — to prevent noncitizen voting — doesn't hold up. Noncitizen voting is incredibly rare. The American Immigration Council analyzed data from an election fraud database created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. This independent analysis of hundreds of millions of votes found just 89 cases of proven noncitizen voting nationwide — less than 0.0001% of total votes cast across seven presidential elections. Moreover, there is no conspiracy to get noncitizens to vote. Upon investigation, most of those 89 votes were accidents — people thought they were supposed to register and vote in order to maintain their visas.
  • Don't let the legislature bring back the Kansas SAFE Act or pass new legislation pushed by groups who want to prevent Kansans from voting. Nationally, the Only Citizens Vote Model Policy is being circulated by the Only Citizens Vote coalition and the Tea Party Patriots. This model policy requires linkage across multiple databases to confirm citizenship and immediately removes from voter rolls anyone with any discrepancies. Then it's up to the voter to prove they're a citizen. It will infringe on privacy and, if adopted nationally, take the vote away from millions of voters. Keep our constitutional language the same in order to maintain everyone's right to vote.

What You Can Do

  1. Vote NO on the Citizenship Voting Requirement Amendment in the November 3 General Election
  2. Register to vote and confirm your polling place before the deadline
  3. Spread the word — share this page and talk to your friends, family, and neighbors
  4. Volunteer or donate to help get out the NO vote across Kansas

Frequently Asked Questions

Doesn't this amendment just confirm that only citizens can vote? What's wrong with that?
The Kansas constitution already limits voting to citizens — that hasn't changed, and this amendment doesn't need to pass for it to remain true. What the amendment actually does is rewrite the constitutional wording from permissive ("every citizen… shall be deemed a qualified elector") to exclusionary ("no person shall be deemed a qualified elector unless…"), and adds a new clause about complying with federal election law. The real effect is to hand future legislators new legal tools to restrict voting.
If Kansas already bars noncitizens from voting, why are legislators pushing this now?
This is a national playbook to pave the way for restrictions like Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC). Kansas is one of at least 18 states that already have nearly identical constitutional language, with Arkansas and South Dakota also voting on similar amendments this cycle. Why? With the new language, states will be able to require DPOC — just like the national SAVE Act is trying to do.
How could this amendment lead to Kansans being required to show proof of citizenship to vote?
The amendment changes constitutional wording. This amendment's new language could be cited to justify trying to enact the Kansas SAFE Act again, or to justify passing even more repressive new laws. Other states offer a preview of what that looks like. In Arizona, a database error left nearly 98,000 voters' citizenship status in limbo, throwing their ability to vote in state and local races into question. In New Hampshire, newly enforced proof-of-citizenship rules turned away longtime, eligible residents at the polls — including Brooke Yonge, a 45-year-old Derry hairstylist who was turned away twice (once for lacking proof of citizenship, then again because her birth certificate's maiden name didn't match her driver's license) before a third trip, with her marriage license in hand, finally let her register.
Who is behind this amendment?
HCR 5004 — which put the amendment on the November ballot — passed the Kansas Legislature with near-unanimous Republican support. It is backed by national organizations including Americans for Citizen Voting and the Opportunity Solutions Project. It's part of a coordinated national campaign that has placed nearly identical amendments before voters in at least 15 states since 2018.
I'm a conservative / Republican. Should I still vote NO?
Many conservatives across the country have raised concerns about proof-of-citizenship implementation problems — Arizona's Republican-run system, in place for two decades, has still produced database errors that put tens of thousands of eligible voters' records in limbo. Protecting eligible citizens' ability to vote isn't a partisan issue. Whatever your party, it's worth asking why the legislature is spending its energy rewriting constitutional language for a problem that doesn't exist in Kansas.
Can I vote on this even if I'm not registered with a party?
Yes. This is a general election ballot measure, not a partisan primary question — it will appear on the ballot for all registered Kansas voters regardless of party affiliation. You must be registered to vote before the deadline; check your registration status and polling place at the Kansas Secretary of State's website.
How does the amendment "pave the way" for introducing voting restrictions?
The current Kansas constitutional wording is an affirmative grant: every citizen meeting basic criteria is a qualified elector. The amendment restructures it as a conditional gate: no one is a qualified elector unless they fulfill listed conditions. That's not just stylistic. Affirmative-grant language tends to be read by courts as establishing a baseline right that the state must justify infringing. Conditional/exclusionary language puts the power to define who qualifies into the hands of the state — placing the burden of proof on the individual to fit inside the requirements, rather than on the state to justify excluding them. This shift redefines voting as a privilege the state confers under conditions, rather than a right citizens inherently hold — it's about where the constitutional default sits.

You're Not Alone

These organizations also oppose the Citizenship Voting Requirement Amendment:

  • ACLU of Kansas
  • League of Women Voters of Kansas
  • Loud Light Civic Action

Learn More

Background on infrequency of voter fraud

Effect of the 2011 Kansas SAFE Act, similar to the current National SAVE Act

Groups promoting state adoption of DPOC via model legislation and how-to guides

Remember: Vote NO on November 3

Protect every eligible Kansan's right to vote. Share this page with your friends, family, and neighbors.