News & Commentary

“When we’re talking about something like autonomy and dignity and privacy those are pretty expansive rights and government intrusion on those rights should have a high level of scrutiny to ensure there is not a deep government invasion into the personal decisions that we have,” said Sharon Brett.

“Ms. Dreiling has for months been disappointingly dismissive of the need for an accessible polling location as repeatedly stated by many of the Hays voters she serves,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas.

Last month, the ACLU of Kansas sent a letter to local election officials urging them to allow transgender people to vote, regardless of the gender marker on their driver's licenses and other forms of ID.

Two college students and a nationwide voter rights organization have called on a Kansas county clerk to help add a polling location to the Fort Hays State University campus to increase voter turnout, however, that plea continues to be overlooked.

The ACLU of Kansas and nine other organizations have been calling on Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Michael Abbott to provide ballots in languages other than English to accommodate the county’s growing minority population.

The ACLU of Kansas says that 10 agencies and organizations in Wyandotte Co. are surprised and disappointed after Election Commissioner Michael Abbott denied a meeting to discuss the need for better language access and early voting this season.

“We were certainly surprised by this denial,” said Leslie Butsch, field organizing director of ACLU of Kansas. “It’s not often that this many organizations and community groups come together on an issue and ask for the same thing.”

A recent report on statewide election policies by the ACLU of Kansas found that between the 2018 and 2022 elections, Wyandotte’s turnout dropped 10.81% — more than twice the statewide average. Our community and our democracy require better of us.

“It’s about Quindaro the idea,” said McCormick, who has also written columns for Kansas Reflector. “Quindaro the aspiration, Quindaro the vision. We’re talking about a place, as one of our sources in the report said, is maybe the best example of a multiracial democracy, not only in the history of the state, but to his knowledge, maybe anywhere in the country.”