News & Commentary

A 45-minute wait to vote in a hotly contested election is insignificant, contends the county clerk who moved Dodge City’s single poll out of town.

A legal settlement, which awaits final court approval, resolves a class action lawsuit alleging the state made it too difficult for hepatitis C patients to receive the potentially life-saving treatments.

There is reason to be concerned, though, that the attorney general will continue to waste valuable time and money on another Kobach debacle: the requirement in Kansas law that some residents present “documentary proof of citizenship” papers before registering to vote.

Mark McCormick, spokesman for ACLU Kansas, said the decision to leave was made before last week’s election, where voters rejected Kobach’s bid to become governor. Kubic will become executive director of ACLU Florida.

Although a federal judge last week struck down the ACLU’s request to keep the polling location open within city limits for Tuesday’s election, the organization said it will continue to push other parts of the lawsuit.

“People can’t just leave the plants to vote. You can’t just run over on your lunch break,” Rangel-Lopez said.

“She can rest easy -- for now -- that she was able to run out the clock. We’re all left to wonder, however, what might have been accomplished had she merely chosen to work with us and with our clients.”

After the ACLU objected to Dodge City’s single, out-of-town polling place, the local official in charge of elections forwarded to the state an ACLU letter asking her to publicize a voter help line. “LOL,” she wrote in an email to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office.

“It is just one example of a broader culture and approach that doesn’t value citizen participation in our democracy,” he said.