It’s the latest flashpoint in Kansas politics, and it’s put the spotlight on the two candidates running to be the state’s chief election officer.
Out in western Kansas, there’s a growing furor over the Ford County clerk’s decision to move Dodge City’s lone polling place outside of town where there’s no access to public transportation.
Relocating the polling station in one of Kansas’ few majority-minority counties is drawing national attention with charges of voter suppression with a midterm election just two weeks away.
The two secretary of state candidates — Democrat Brian McClendon and Republican Scott Schwab — are clashing over the decision to move the polling location, which the American Civil Liberties Union has questioned and the Democrats are using to raise money.
McClendon highlighted the access issue for voters on Facebook Live on Oct. 8 when he posted a 30-minute video of himself walking about a mile in the rain from the nearest bus stop to the new voting location in Dodge City. The video was shared 622 times and viewed almost 43,000 times.
“What’s happening now is completely ridiculous,” McClendon said in an interview. “This is completely unacceptable.”
Arguing that the secretary of state should be a champion of encouraging voter turnout, McClendon said the Ford County decision creates a “gross inconvenience” for voters that leaves a black mark on the state. He said more polling locations are needed in Dodge City.
“This is not a good thing for the state. We are now being lumped in with North Dakota and Georgia as having significant voter suppression by design,” he said. “It’s not absolutely clear to me that this was originally voter suppression, but the effect of it is that it’s harder to vote.”
McClendon drew a response from Schwab, who said his Democratic challenger was trying to make the Ford County clerk look bad.
Schwab said the decision is up to the county clerk, not the secretary of state. He criticized McClendon for not contacting the Ford County clerk to understand more about the decision to move the polling location.
While McClendon calls for more polling places, Schwab said parking limits and federal laws governing access for people with disabilities limits which buildings can be used for voting.
“He can say he wants more polling places, but then you could be violating the law because it doesn’t meet the standard,” Schwab said. “It’s not like you can just take a building and say, ‘This is now a polling place.’ ”
Schwab added, “The clerk is doing what they can with the resources they have to meet federal and state requirements. You just can’t make anything a polling place.”
Debbie Cox, the Ford County clerk, has said she needed an alternative polling location with construction work scheduled to start on the previous polling site at the Civic Center in Dodge City. She picked the Expo south of the city because it was big enough and accessible.
Election officials said mailers were sent to voters notifying them of the change. They also were sent applications for advance ballots.
The local transit system will offer free rides to the new polling site on Election Day.
“Debbie Cox has done a fantastic job,” Schwab said. “For (McClendon) to pick on this young lady clerk is not only unprofessional, but it’s just not very Kansas. In Kansas, if you got a problem with the county clerk, you pick up the phone and ask them why they’re doing what they’re doing.”
For his part, McClendon said he tried to contact Cox. He said his office has tried several times to reach her to make an appointment and had not heard back. He visited the office on a holiday when it wasn’t open.
“We need to see when there are problems like this,” McClendon said. “If my opponent doesn’t recognize this is a problem, then he’s not capable of doing the job.”
The ACLU has expressed concern about the county’s decision to move the polling site, noting that the new location doesn’t normally have access to public transit and freight trains block traffic at a time when voters need to reach the polls.
The ACLU says the city’s one polling location — it has had only one location since 2002 — serves 13,136 voters, “making it one of the most burdened polling places in all of Kansas.” By comparison, the average Kansas polling place serves 1,200 voters.
