No, I'm not outraged. You have to look at the conditions that necessitated the move. They had no choice to move the polling place because of construction and they needed a big enough space to handle the volume of voters. Is it ideal, of course not. Is there another option in town? I don't know the answer to that. It sounds like the whole ADA thing is what prompted consolidation of the polling places into one polling place back in 2002. There seems to be plausible reasons for the consolidation and the current temporary move. Is it possibly something sinister to the move? I suppose there is a chance, but neither one of us know that.
My sarcastic comment about where is the outrage, has more to do with the liberals seeing racism in EVERYTHING. My point is that if Barton County was also 60% Hispanic, and they dropped the number of polling places from 23 to 11. The calls of racism would be shouted from the mountain tops. A reasonable person can understand why they are dropping from 23 to 11 and thus nobody says boo.
abc - Liberal is in Seward County. Dodge City is in Ford County. Liberal and Dodge City have meat packing plants attracting minority populations. Liberal and Dodge with Garden City make up the "meat triangle" in southwest Kansas and are minority-majority counties. In contrast, Barton county with 11 voting sites has a population of 27,000 and Ford county with one voting site out of town has a population of 19,800. With meat packing plants in town, the Hispanic population is 60%. Barton County has a 16% Hispanic population. Employees have forced many meat packing plants for regular and bathroom breaks. Some employees resorted to wearing diapers.
In Kansas, a federal judge recently struck down a voter id law requiring proof of citizenship which was passed by a predominately Republican legislature on the basis that it targeted groups like youth and minorities. The judge found that the law "disproportionately impacted duly qualified registration applicants, while only nominally preventing noncitizen voter registration.” The law required prospective voters to present a U.S. passport, birth certificate or other proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Hispanics are less likely than their white counterparts to have access to a vehicle, have lower incomes and work in industries with less flexible schedules.
The Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, implemented some of the strictest voting regulations in the country and was the vice-chair of Trump's election integrity commission. He requested that each state provide all the personal information on every registered state voter in search of voting fraud. While many states refused to provide those and joined a lawsuit, no fraud was found. Kobach recently won the Rep primary for Governor by a few hundred votes. In the past he has tossed 20,000 provisional ballots without a review. He has questioned Obama's citizenship. The county clerk in Kansas is in charge of voting decisions. Ford county's county clerk, Debra Cox, emailed Kobach "LOL" in response to the ACLU's lawsuit alleging violations of the Voting Right Act.
Seventeen percent of Dodge City's Hispanic community that makes up 57% of their population voted in 2016. As I noted, twenty percent of residents meet the federal poverty guidelines. Their has been a strong voter registration drive among that population and potential first time voters. In this atmosphere, Hispanics may be more intimidated to register and have the opportunity to vote. While some are citizens, they may have an undocumented immigrant in their household.
As an essential element for democracy in our society - Hesburgh called it "a civic sacrament" - and as the only vehicle by which citizens can express their opinions on our government, such voting restrictions with hardships handicap citizens who are first time voters or poor and who rely on their jobs to provide their families with income. Also of note, addresses in rural areas tend to be post office boxes. So requiring numbered addresses as some states have done restrictions their voting rights. This has been a barrier for such minorities as Native American tribal members to vote. In comparison, a farmer in rural Kansas can take time off, has transportation, and those voting restrictions do not handicap or intimidate him from voting.
I am in favor of voting laws such as automatic registration in any government office that requires an id, polling places that are convenient for all voters, as well as those that Eddy noted including early voting, which is more convenient for many. We can consider a National Holiday for voting. Some workplaces give their employees paid time off to vote though some companies like in meat-packing may be forced to provide bathroom breaks. As far as Dodge City's voting goes and the ADA, their schools which are, i assume, are ADA-accessible would be excellent choices. The schools in Dodge have volunteered for voting polling stations and are used throughout the nation, but rejected by Cox. I think we need secure on-line voting processes to prevent hacking.
Dodge City’s out-of-town polling place adds to fears of voter suppression in Kansas (Wichita Eagle)
From suppression to fraud:
Voting obstacles of 2018
(Wichita Eagle)
Tribes scramble to meet voter ID requirements in North Dakota (CBS)
