KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Three federal judges who will set new political boundaries for Kansas told Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Monday that they are uncomfortable resolving redistricting issues as quickly as he wants and that potential administrative problems in overseeing elections are not as important as gathering different perspectives on how lines should be drawn.
Kobach was in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., for a pretrial hearing as the defendant in a lawsuit over state legislators' failure to approve any redistricting proposals this year. Lawmakers were supposed to adjust the lines of congressional, state House, state Senate and State Board of Education districts to reflect population shifts over the past decade, but a bitter feud among Republicans prevented it.
Kansas is the only state in the nation in which legislators haven't drawn new congressional districts, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Kobach was pushing the judges to impose their maps by June 4, a week ahead of the state's candidate filing deadline, so Kansas can hold its primary election on Aug. 7 as planned without major glitches.
He sought to limit the number of individuals who could participate in the lawsuit, objecting to requests from seven of at least 14 voters and public officials who sought to intervene. But the judges ruled that all of them could participate, including U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, state House Minority Leader Paul Davis and state Senate Reapportionment Committee Chairman Tim Owens. After the hearing, Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed his own request asking for permission to join Kobach as a defendant.
A trial of the lawsuit is set for May 29 and 30, though presiding U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil warned attorneys for the parties that they should set aside three more days in early June. She also said the judicial panel may retain its own experts and expressed interest in obtaining the computer map-drawing software used by legislators.
"I think the people of Kansas deserve better than what they've gotten," Vratil told Kobach from the bench during the hour long hearing. "They deserve better than to have this case ramrodded through this court."
Kobach said he didn't want the case to become drawn out because some candidates can't file for office until they know the appropriate district. Delaying deadlines will create headaches for county election officials, and he's most worried about meeting a June 23 deadline to distribute ballots to military personnel overseas, if the primary remains Aug. 7.
"I disagree with the characterization that this would be ramrodded," he told Vratil.
The individuals who sought to intervene argued that their interests can't be adequately represented by Kobach, a conservative Republican, or Robyn Renee Essex, a GOP precinct committee member from Olathe who filed the lawsuit earlier this month.
"I think we need to let everybody in and let them have their say in front of the court," Davis said after the hearing. "We should err on the side of allowing more people to present their perspectives, rather than fewer."
Parties in the case expect to submit multiple proposals for the federal judges to review, but the judges didn't foreclose the possibility of drawing the lines themselves.
"I like to write on blank sheets of paper," one of the panel members, Chief Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, said from the bench.
Kobach didn't object to the participation of Yoder, a freshman Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District centered on the Kansas City metropolitan area, because of Yoder's status as a public official. He had a similar reason for not objecting to Davis' participation.
But Kobach initially opposed Owens' participation, because Owens classified himself as a voter in his court filing. As the Senate Reapportionment Committee's chairman and a GOP moderate, Owens was a key figure in the Legislature's redistricting debate, drafting and defending proposals for new Senate districts that the conservative Republican faction strongly criticized.
And Owens attorney Eric Unrein said Owens would offer "unique expertise." When Briscoe pressed Kobach on Owens' special status as a legislator, Kobach dropped his objection.
"It seems like you're trying to restrict the information that's coming to us," Vratil told Kobach from the bench.
Kobach said he could envision many individuals coming forward to intervene, complicating and drawing out the trial.
"We are up against some very clear constraints in terms of the administration of elections," Kobach told The Associated Press after the hearing.
The redistricting lawsuit is Robyn Renee Essex v. Kansas Secretary of State, No. 12-cv04046 in the U.S. District Court for Kansas.
Online:
U.S. District Court for Kansas: https://ecf.ksd.uscourts.gov/
Kansas Legislature's redistricting site: http://redistricting.ks.gov
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