By Mary Clarkin, The Hutchinson News
Ethel Peterson of Dodge City sees a solution to a lawsuit prompted a single out-of-town voting site in the last general election.
The former state representative and others favor using schools as voting sites. Their group presented the idea to the Dodge City USD 443 Board of Education Monday. USD 443 Superintendent Fred Dierksen not only has said he is willing to cooperate, but he cited state statute that requires school districts to be partners.
The Legislature passed an overall elections bill in 2015 that included this provision: All school districts “shall make suitable school buildings available for polling places at the request of a county election officer for the county in which all or any portion of the school district is located.”
The statute says the county election officer shall give notice on or before Jan. 1 of each year to the school district superintendent of the need to use one or more school buildings as polling places for any primary or general election.
“We have made it clear we would cooperate,” said USD 443 Board of Education President Lisa Killion told The News this week. Killion said she thinks the decision is clearly up to Ford County Clerk/Election Official Debbie Cox.
Cox’s decision to have one voting site brought a lawsuit from the ACLU of Kansas charging voter suppression which brought national attention to the town of about 28,000.
The school district has not been contacted regarding placing a site in its facilities, Dierksen said Friday.
New sites pending
Ford County is expected to announce this month or next month two new voting sites in Dodge City for 2019 elections in August and November.
Dodge City Assistant City Manager/Legislative Affairs Ernestor De La Rosa said recently that there are reservations for a city-owned facility but he declined to reveal the building until it had been finalized by Cox.
The city’s Hoover Pavilion, 108 4th Ave., in Wright Park, is a multipurpose building often booked for weddings or parties. Peterson, Democrat, said Beeson Elementary School on Beeson Road is farther south in Dodge City and more easily accessible from the outside than Hoover Pavilion, and would be a better alternative, in her view.
It isn’t known if Hoover Pavilion is the city-owned facility under consideration as a polling location, and multiple efforts to reach De La Rosa were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman at the Knights of Columbus, 800 W. Frontview St., on the city’s north end, said they had been contacted regarding the potential use of the building as a voting site, but said nothing is set.
Legal problems
Dodge City’s out-of-town polling location prompted a lawsuit against Cox filed in October 2018 by the ACLU of Kansas, making national news.
“We all knew we looked like we got a lemon,” said a statement prepared for the school board.
To make lemonade, the group proposed to USD 443′s board:
The district should designate November general election days as in-service days. That won’t be disruptive and paraprofessionals and other school staff who don’t have to attend the in-service day would be available - if they chose - to be election board workers. Those with bilingual skills possibly could volunteer, too.
There should be ample parking available at the schools because of the in-service day, making it easier for voters coming to the polls.
Older high school students or those in student council could get involved in Election Day. “What a learning opportunity it could be,” the statement noted.
The community could contact the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the broadcast networks for coverage about how voting is available in the schools.
Dierksen said the school calendar for 2019-2020 is already set and Nov. 6, 2019, is not currently an in-service day.
Media questions to Cox concerning voting sites are referred to County Administrator J.D. Gilbert, could not be reached Friday.
Lauren Bonds, interim executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said the group would consider four additional voting sites to help settle the lawsuit against Cox, which is still pending.
“There’s no reason they can’t offer four,” Peterson said.
Madai Rivera, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Cox, said the organization and co-plaintiff Alejandro Rangel-Lopez “remain open to settlement offers.”
They are not seeking a personal financial settlement but “just need Cox to propose concrete plans addressing our voting access concerns,” Rivera said in a statement Friday.
“Let’s settle this,” Rivera said.