Avery Rowland, a transgender woman in small-town Kansas, is running as a Democrat to represent a state legislative district in the bottom-right corner of the state, about two hours south of Kansas City. She wants to bring more highways, hospitals and schools to her rural, deep-red district. Her race was fairly uneventful, until she got wind of a Kansas Republican Party official questioning her eligibility to vote.
Kansas Reflector, a local news outlet, came to her with records showing that the state GOP treasurer, Roger Lomshek, had called the secretary of state’s office and asked why a new law invalidating transgender Kansans’ licenses wasn’t being applied to voter registration. Specifically, he wanted to know why that law didn’t apply to Rowland and her ability to vote. Just be a man, but, whatever.” Lomshek was asking about SB 244, which invalidated thousands of Kansans’ drivers licenses based on gender identity and required immediate replacement.
In response to Lomshek’s inquiry, state officials found that election officers are not responsible for enforcing SB244 when it comes to voting or running for office. Lomshek did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Kansas Republican Party also did not respond.
In February, Rowland and thousands of other trans people across the state received letters stating they had only days before their driver’s licenses would be invalidated. The state was forcing them to get IDs labeled with their sex at birth, not their current gender. They would face penalties for driving with their old license.
There was no grace period. The law, passed by the GOP-controlled legislature over the governor’s veto, revoked licenses and banned trans people from public restrooms on government property, threatening fines on both counts. Trans people across Kansas are carrying incorrect IDs due to this new law.
The midterms are the first test of whether this causes issues at the ballot box. So far, when it comes to voting, these mismatched IDs don’t seem to be a problem. That could be a rare good sign for Kansans, who are living under the most restrictive ID law for transgender people in the country.
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