In 2013, Donna Bucci, a woman in her 50s living in Wichita, Kansas, went to renew her drivers license. Bucci had been Kansas resident for a few years, and decided to use her trip to the DMV as an opportunity to register to vote while she was there.

Bucci didnt need to prove she was a citizen to renew her license (Kansas says an expiring license is good enough ). But shortly after she registered, she received a phone call and a letter in the mail saying her voter registration was still pending because she hadnt proved she was a citizen. Bucci, who was born in Maryland, didnt have a copy of her birth certificate or any of the other documents, like a passport, to prove she was a citizen. She was working a minimum wage job at a correctional facility at the time and couldnt afford the $20 to get her birth certificate from Maryland. Because she couldnt prove she was a citizen, Kansas kicked her off the voting rolls.

Earlier in the same year that Bucci registered, Kansas implemented a law requiring people to prove their citizenship when they register to vote. Spearheaded by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), officials said it was necessary to prevent noncitizens from getting on the voting rolls. Kobach put anyone who didnt prove they were a citizen on a suspense list and purged them from the rolls if they couldnt prove it, including Bucci.

In 2016, Bucci joined five other Kansans to sue Kobach and challenge the law. They say the law is unnecessarily restrictive and violates the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), a 1993 law that requires states to offer people the opportunity to register at DMVs and other state agencies. The NVRA says when someone registers to vote at the DMV, the state can only ask people for the minimum amount of information necessary to assess whether theyre eligible.