Why does Wyandotte County do so much worse for voters than other Kansas communities? | Opinion

I haven’t always appreciated how our democracy embodies what it means to be a community. When I first was eligible to vote, I did not. Living in a red state, I was resigned to the idea that these decisions were already made for me and that my vote didn’t count or make a difference.

Then I met my wife, who was passionate about her vote — and she helped me realize what it means for everyone to pitch in and work for a better future, starting at the poll. And I get so much pride seeing my daughter excited to vote. A recent graduate from the University of Kansas with a master’s degree in history, she rarely left campus — except to vote, taking public transit to the Douglas County courthouse after she had researched her candidates. She knew she would make a difference.

Now, during election season, I relish the atmosphere when I physically go in to the election office for early voting, greeting other members of my suburban community. It’s a way of letting everyone know that I am here: I have a vote, I am important, and you can never take that away from me, my wife or my daughters.

In a way, our democracy is being part of our community.

It’s my community that I think of, as someone with lifelong roots in Wyandotte County, when I consider the election office’s lack of responsiveness to the clear needs of the public it serves. Despite being one of the most diverse counties in the state, where many residents are used to various buildings and services having Spanish and other language signage and materials, Wyandotte County does not provide voting materials in any language other than English.

In the last decade, Wyandotte’s nonwhite population has only grown, and that includes individuals with limited English proficiency. Meanwhile, several Kansas counties with significantly smaller Hispanic or Latino proportions of their populations currently provide alternate language materials: Gove, Haskell, Lane, Rawlins, Shawnee, Sherman, Stevens and Wilson counties. And Cowley and Phillips counties offer translator or audio options. The majority of these 10 counties have offices with much less capacity than Wyandotte.

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.

Lately, in this moment of increased politicization of the electoral process, I think a lot about all the people who came before me, wanting better for their children, including my mother’s generation. I think of the struggle of those in the past who fought just to crack the door open for their rights, for their children and for the generations who would follow. They suffered the pain of bruises, stress and danger to themselves and their families to be free and to have their voices heard.

My mother’s generation was on the front lines, witnessed it on the news and bled for their rights. My mother still loves to mail in her ballot, and she works on Election Day at the polls in Wyandotte County.

Our democracy embodies so much of our community’s history. And the ways that we continue to build our community’s access to vote should include the language that our neighbors speak.

This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 5:14 AM.