News & Commentary

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.

Local election officials are now scrambling to notify newly registered voters who might be confused by its official registration notice that listed only their regular polling site — not the temporary site for the November election.

Federal Judge Julie Robinson said in an order on Thursday that the tape is not part of the judicial record. The order prevents the American Civil Liberties Union from releasing the tape.

In Kansas, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach’s calls for strict laws to combat “voter fraud” have earned him a national reputation, and he served as vice chairman resident of Trump’s defunct voter fraud commission.

Regardless of party, regardless of the issue, if you have a problem on Election Day, the ACLU wants to help on both sides of the border.

“We hope that, whichever candidate is elected, the new secretary of state urges the legislature to actually repeal this unnecessary and vote suppressing law,” ACLU of Kansas director Micah Kubic said.

Before taking the vote, the council heard supportive remarks from multiple Merriam residents, representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Kansas. Additionally, residents and elected officials from neighboring cities and faith leaders voiced their support for the measure.

The ACLU of Kansas, though, is hopping mad. The organization pointed out that it took a citizen’s complaint in 2017 to push Cox to notify residents of the new polling location and to offer free bus rides on Election Day.