Trans people will be allowed to vote, Kansas officials say, amid ID gender marker lawsuit

Transgender Kansans will be allowed to vote in local elections this month, despite an ongoing dispute over state law affecting gender markers on state-issued identification.

"There's no effect whatsoever," said Shawnee County election commissioner Andrew Howell. "It has nothing to do with the voting process, so it never comes up."

A transgender person can walk into their polling place, present their state-issued ID and should not have a problem voting, Howell said.

"As long as they're a registered voter, they're good," he said.

ACLU had sent a letter to election offices on transgender voting access

Last month, the ACLU of Kansas sent a letter to local election officials urging them to allow transgender people to vote, regardless of the gender marker on their driver's licenses and other forms of ID.

"In light of the upcoming 2023 General Election sand ongoing litigation/policy changes impacting transgender Kansans' ability to access accurate gender markers on Kansas identity documents, we write to provide information necessary to ensure that no transgender Kansans are improperly turned away from the polls," the ACLU letter said.

Voting access for transgender people had been called into question as state and local governments grapple with the fallout of a new state law defining gender.

Senate Bill 180, a sweeping anti-transgender rights law, took effect July 1 as Gov. Laura Kelly and Attorney General Kris Kobach disagreed over its proper interpretation. Kobach's legal opinion was that driver's licenses and birth certificates for transgender Kansans would have to be changed to reflect their sex assigned at birth.

Kobach took Kelly's administration to court, and quickly secured a temporary restraining order from Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson. A hearing on a motion for a temporary injunction is scheduled for January.

Under the current order, the Kansas Department of Revenue cannot issue new IDs that reclassify gender and cannot process applications to change the gender marker from the biological sex assigned at birth. Unexpired driver's licenses and other IDs remain valid, but cannot be renewed without reverting the gender marker to the sex at birth.

But it remains unclear whether there was any implication for the state's voter ID law, which was championed by Kobach when he previously served as secretary of state. It was also backed by current Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who at the time was a state legislator leading an elections committee.

Do Kansas state officials agree with the ACLU?

The ACLU maintains that the gender marker or lack thereof on a voter's identification document "should have no impact on their ability to vote in Kansas." The legal organization argued that trans voters who have an ID with a photo or gender marker that is different than their appearance and gender expression should not be denied a ballot or required to cast a provisional ballot.

A spokesperson for Kobach did not respond to requests for comment on whether he agrees with the ACLU's interpretation or if his office has provided guidance to local election offices.

Whitney Tempel, a spokesperson for Schwab, said the state's top election official had not provided any guidance to local election officials related to handling IDs for transgender people.

She did not directly answer whether the Secretary of State's Office agrees with the ACLU's position, but she did refer to the same state statute — K.S.A. 25-2908, on voter ID — that the ACLU did.

"Kansas does have voter identification laws and policies that voters must comply with to vote," the ACLU letter said. "However, there is no requirement in Kansas that these voter identification documents list a gender marker — nor is there a requirement that, if a gender marker is listed on the document, it must 'match' or correspond with the gender expression of the voter."

Gov. Laura Kelly told reporters after advance voting on Tuesday that she hopes trans people will be able to vote with state-issued IDs.

"I would hope so, and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't," she said.

Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Transgender voters can use Kansas IDs while courts decide SB 180 case