voting rights

Sounds like the judge in the trial over Kansas’s strict voter registration law isn’t too pleased with Kris Kobach and his legal team right now.

Tierney Sneed reported Thursday afternoon that Kobach, the Kansas Sec. of State, tried again to introduce some evidence that Judge Julie Robinson had previously blocked him from submitting because his team blew a deadline to show it to the challengers.

“When do we close the door, Mr. Kobach?” Robinson asked. She said it was an “ambush” to try to introduce the new evidence in the middle of the trial.

“That’s not how trials are conducted,” added Robinson, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

This comes after Judge Robinson repeatedly lectured Kobach’s team about trial procedure on Wednesday.

Remember, Kobach chose to represent himself in the trial, using lawyers from the Sec. of State’s office, rather than relying on the state AG.

The trial over Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s controversial voting law is in its third day, and Tierney Sneed is in Kansas covering all the action for us.

Today, after a bit of a struggle, Kobach succeeded in getting a piece of evidence that’s central to his case admitted. It’s a spreadsheet that he claims shows a significant rate of non-citizen voting. Kobach needs to show that non-citizen voting is a real problem, in order to justify his law requiring people to show proof of citizenship when they register.

You can expect the ACLU to try to raise serious doubts about the spreadsheet’s claims. Still, it sounds a little better for Kobach than what happened Wednesday, when the judge kept having to lecture Kobach’s team of lawyers on the correct trial procedure. Kobach is defending the law himself, rather than relying on the state AG’s office.

Oh and Kobach also reportedly came to court today with an armed escort, citing potential security threats.

You can follow Tierney’s live updates here.