Kansas committee hears debate on marking citizenship on state IDs in proposed HB 24-48

Members of the Kansas House Committee on Elections heard testimony on House Bill 24-48, a proposal to add "citizenship status" to state driver's licenses and identification cards and to require provisional ballots when a noncitizen ID is presented.

Clay Barker, general counsel for the Kansas Secretary of State, said the change would add “one more layer of protection” to make it easier for election workers to identify potential problems and prevent noncitizens from voting either accidentally or intentionally. Barker told the committee that recent enforcement actions include “2 have been indicted, 3 probably soon, and 10 are being looked at closely,” and that the state uses DMV records and the federal USCIS SAVE system to screen records.

“At the polling place, the driver's license will be swiped through the electronic poll book, and it can tell you if there's a problem,” Barker said, while noting that noncitizen voting prosecutions are rare and the office’s testimony focused on election-system impacts.

Supporters including Jacqueline Doyer of Honest Elections Project ACTION and Catherine Bennett of the American Legislative Exchange Council said a visible citizenship notation would be a straightforward way to reduce the risk of ineligible individuals casting ballots, while also noting implementation steps such as training, free IDs and provisional ballots that could mitigate access concerns.

Opponents told the committee the bill would create privacy and civil‑liberties problems and could lead to discrimination and disenfranchisement. Logan DeMond, director of policy and research at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the proposal is “part of a much larger coordinated attack on civil rights and immigrant communities,” arguing it would pressure people to disclose immigration status where that information is unnecessary and could deter licensing and public-safety compliance.

Critics testified that similar provisions were previously litigated in Kansas and elsewhere. Melissa Styler of Floodlight Civic Action noted prior litigation (Fish v. Kobach/Fish v. Schwab) and told the committee that court decisions and statistical analyses show noncitizen registration and voting have been, in past reviews, an extremely small fraction of registrations.

Several committee members asked technical and practical questions about how the existing temporary driver's license code (TDL) is recorded and whether the marking would appear on the face of the card. Barker said the DMV currently codes TDLs in the database but generally does not display that status on the card face; the bill would change the visible evidence available to poll workers.

Members also aired civil‑rights concerns. Representative Mosley and others warned that a visible citizenship marking could invite profiling by law enforcement or private actors. Opponents emphasized that the bills in committee are conceptual and that some descriptions offered in testimony exceeded the current text.

The committee closed the public hearing without taking a vote and the chair said an amendment reflecting the chair’s earlier description could be circulated before the next work session.