In the Spring of this year, when IndivisibleKC began to strategize at the state level about its direction for the next 12-18 months, one of the core issues that came into focus was Election Integrity. The reasons are two-fold: Kansas has made its office of Secretary of State the most powerful in the nation by giving it prosecutorial power and Kansas has steadily passed laws since 2013 to keep many from registering to vote or from actually voting, including law-abiding citizens. These laws have to an large extent affected young people, people of color and the elderly.

If election integrity is our focus and if what’s preventing integrity in our elections is infringement on our rights to vote, it made perfect sense to team up with the one organization that has been fighting discrimination against voting for nearly a hundred years, the ACLU.

In our state alone, the ACLU OF KS, has fought four Voter Suppression cases and won EVERY single one of them. As a solution to our current situation, ACLU of KS has created The Kansas Coalition for Citizen Participation, a broad-based coalition made up of organizations from across the state that share a common dedication to protecting and expanding the right to vote. The members will work together to develop an action plan to mobilize Kansans to organize within their communities to increase citizen participation.

IndivisibleKC is proud to be partnering with the ACLU on this endeavor. Our work will be to educate the public about the importance of civic engagement and encourage legislators to take action towards promoting stronger civic health.

This new statewide coalition will be unveiled on October 1 at the same time that our friends at the ACLU will launch a national initiative, Let People Vote. IndivisibleKC will be there and wanted to pass the invitation along to you. Click HERE to RSVP. We hope you join us.