Fish v. Kobach, — F.3d —, 2016 WL 6093990 (10th Cir. Oct. 19, 2016)

A group of unsuccessful voter registration applicants brought suit against the state of Kansas, alleging that the state’s law requiring documentary proof of citizenship was preempted by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).  The Tenth Circuit agreed, holding that the NVRA’s attestation requirement established the presumptive minimum amount of information that a state needed to carry out its eligibility-assessment and registration duties.  In order to rebut this presumption and require documentary proof of citizenship, the state must make a factual showing that the attestation requirement is insufficient for these purposes.  Kansas failed to make this showing, and thus the NVRA preempted the state law.