Millions of American's Right to Vote is at Stake in This Case

"In October 2014, Charles Stricker III went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Wichita, Kansas, to get a new driver’s license and register to vote. Stricker, who’d recently moved back to Wichita from Chicago, brought his Illinois driver’s license, Social Security card, and utility bill to confirm his identity and residence. He was asked if he wanted to register to vote, and he said yes and then checked a box on the application form affirming that he was a US citizen. He walked out with a temporary driver’s license and believed he was registered to vote.

Three weeks later, Stricker and his wife went to their polling place at Central Christian Church in northeast Wichita. When he got to the front of the line, a poll worker scanned the voter registration rolls and told Stricker he was not registered. The best she could do was give him a provisional ballot.

While his wife voted in a private booth, Stricker filled out his provisional ballot at a plastic table in the center of the room. “It was almost like I was on display,” he told me when I visited Kansas last year on assignment for the New York Times Magazine. “It was very awkward to say the least. There was a line out the door and everyone was staring at me.”

After the election, Stricker learned that his ballot was not counted. He was one of 35,000 voters in Kansas who had their registrations blocked by the state for failing to provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers, when they registered. Stricker, 39, was born in Missouri and managed the nicest hotel in Wichita..."

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