Errors in voter guidelines distributed by the Kansas secretary of state's office could have prevented thousands of people from registering to vote.
The mistakes were made on the Spanish language guidelines only.
- The Spanish version said voters could register up to 15 days before an election.
- The actual deadline is 21 days before an election, which was printed correctly on the English guide.
- The Spanish version did not include passports on the list of acceptable IDs.
- The English version did.
"This kind of pushes those who are eligible to vote back and continues to create obstacles," said Irene Caudillo, the president and CEO of El Centro.
El Centro is a non-for-profit organization that "strengthens communities and improves lives of Latinos and others." One of its missions is to help register Latinos and encourage them to vote. But it's often a challenge.
"It's tough to not feel like this was intentional because of the things coming out of the secretary of state's office," said Caudillo. "It seems like the same cycle we have been dealing with for the past three, four years."
In 2014, the state changed the deadline for registering voters from 15 days before an election to 21 days. The change was reflected on the English guidelines but not on the Spanish guidelines.
Kansas City lawyer Jessica Piedra said these discrepancies could violate federal law.
"We are under the obligation that everything that's produced in English must be produced accurately in the native language," Piedra said.
The secretary of state's office did change the language on its website.
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Ariel Rothfield can be reached at Ariel.Rothfield@KSHB.com.
