Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, has spent a great deal of his career trying to stress and expose the problem of voter fraud in Kansas when, in reality, voter fraud in Kansas is not a problem. 

Kobach decided to represent himself as his own attorney in a lawsuit that the League of Women Voters of Kansas filed on Feb. 18, 2016.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought the case on March 6, where the Kansas documentary proof of citizenship requirement was challenged.

The case ran from March 6-19 at the Dole Courthouse.

Examples of the documentary proof of citizenship required for Kansas are birth certificates, passports, naturalization documents, and even family bibles. 

The issue is that many people do not have a passport or their birth certificate, and these documents are not pain-free or cost-free to obtain.

Kobach has claimed that tens of thousands of non-citizens have attempted voter fraud in Kansas when ,in fact, he has only caught nine people during his eight years and only one was a noncitizen.

He has been accused of prohibiting over 30,000 legitimate voters from voting. 

After Kobach’s appearance in the trial, the old saying “a person who represents himself in court has a fool for a client” came to mind. 

On the first day of the trial an ACLU lawyer had to interrupt out of politeness to let Kobach know he had given them a piece of paper with his notes. 

Not only did Kobach come unprepared, his expert witnesses were proven uncredible as well, lacking peer reviewed articles and the requirements necessary.

One expert witness made the claim that not all people born on U.S.soil should be considered citizens.

In an article by the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, writer Zachary Mueller gave an overview of day three of the trial. Mueller said Kobach’s team “appeared embarrassingly unprepared in questioning, bumbling through evidence, and repeatedly interrupted by Judge Robinson to be lectured on the rules and procedures of the court.”

In contrast to Kobach, the ACLU team came prepared with knowledgeable lawyers and witnesses. Dale Ho, ACLU lawyer, destroyed the Kobach team on the stand, proving himself to be knowledgeable and professional.

Kobach is expected to be the Republican nominee for Kansas governor, but has time after time proven himself incapable of being prepared and professional. 

If Kobach cannot get through a court case successfully after graduating from Yale, then how can he be expected to govern our state?