News & Commentary

On October 3, 2018, the ACLU of Kansas wrote a letter to Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox addressing both historical polling place concerns and immediate concerns related to the relocation of a single, heavily burdened Dodge City polling site. 

The candidates talk about education, taxation, and industry, but not about the horrifically expanding prison system that likely would scuttle advances in each of these areas.

According to Lauren Bonds, Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas, the lawsuit does not pursue private information but instead seeks greater transparency in an effort to let people know if their vote was counted.

“Mass incarceration is a nationwide problem, but one that is rooted in the states and must be fixed by the states,” said Udi Ofer, director of the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice.

“We aren’t asking to see who they voted for or any private information,” said Bonds, who grew up in Hutchinson. “That information should be afforded the utmost privacy. However, people should know whether their vote counted or if people faced any unnecessary barriers to voting."

“Instead of simply acknowledging their violation of student first amendment rights, the district appears to be doubling down on the mistakes they’ve made,” said ACLU of Kansas Legal Director Lauren Bonds.

Last spring, Shawnee Mission School District leaders answered students who claimed their freedom of speech was violated by promising to investigate ways to improve.

Micah Kubic, Executive Director of the Kansas ACLU, and others talked about the climate of fear in the country with a president and a candidate for Governor of Kansas who want to criminalize refugees and asylees and send their agents into our communities.

"The problem is that one in five people in the county don't have access to an ID, any type of ID," said Alex Martinez, with the ACLU of Kansas.