By Sherman Smith, The Salina Journal
A Dodge City high school student who carried a torch amid voting access uproar last fall says election officials undermine democracy and warrant proposed federal guidance.
Alejandro Rangel-Lopez testified Thursday before a U.S. House committee that is considering legislation that favors automatic registration, early voting and public transportation for all polling locations.
The teenager became the namesake for a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union over the decision by Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox to move the only polling location for 13,000 voters in Dodge City to a spot outside town. The nearest bus stop was a mile away.
Litigation was dropped earlier this year after Cox announced three polling sites would serve the community in future elections.
Rangel-Lopez said Cox spent nearly $100,000 in legal fees fighting efforts to make the polling place more accessible. For some, he said, the bus schedule and mile walk led to a 90-minute one-way trip, followed by a 45-minute wait in line. It wasn’t until the matter received national scrutiny that the city announced it would offer transportation directly to the polling place.
“We often think that the biggest threat to the American electoral system is a foreign threat,” Rangel-Lopez said. “While those concerns are justified, it’s also true that many of the measures undermining voter access are being perpetrated by the very elected officials elected or selected to protect people’s voting rights.”