Serving Kansas City (Wyandotte County) Kansas for over 50 years!
A debate between U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-3rd Dist., and Amanda Adkins, Republican, will air at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, on KCPT-TV, Channel 19.1.
Nick Haines will moderate the hour-long debate on “Week in Review.”
For Wyandotte Daily election information:
https://wyandotteonline.com/category/election-2022.
by Rachel Mipro, Kansas Reflector
Topeka — Kansas voting rights advocates say legislation passed over the past two years hurts disabled voters and voters of color in Kansas, diminishing their ability to cast ballots in the November election.
Ami Hyten, executive director of the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, said she was concerned about the effect of 2021 legislation on disabled voters, highlighting House Bills 2183 and 2332.
She spoke Thursday at a meeting of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Kansas Advisory Committee on voting rights concerns in the state.
HB 2183 made it illegal for one person to deliver more than 10 advance voting ballots on behalf of other voters. Hyten said this restriction made things more difficult for her organization, which works to make the voting process easier for disabled voters.
Since many disabled people live in community settings, she said collecting 10 or more ballots wasn’t unheard of for her organization. This method of collection is now prohibited under state law.
The bill also makes handling a voter’s ballot a misdemeanor for people who aren’t election officials, unless it’s on behalf of a family member. The bill prohibits people from delivering advance voting ballots on behalf of other people without a signed written statement and also requires signature verification for advanced voting ballots.
HB 2332 requires voters to have a residential address meeting certain requirements, without which the voter cannot be registered.
Hyten said these requirements pose huge obstacles for disabled voters.
“It’s important to understand that the bills passed by the 2021 legislature have a cumulative impact in building a culture where particularly for Black and brown disabled people, even the most routine or mundane of life activities is criminalized or subjected to penalization,” Hyten said. “We are being asked to participate in an activity that we have to fight to get access to in the first instance, that has implications on questions about our own capabilities and capacity.”
Another major concern highlighted Thursday was the effect of redistricting.
The Kansas Legislature redrew congressional and state legislative maps in early 2022, as part of the redistricting process that occurs every 10 years, based on updated Census results.
Legislature Republicans approved the maps, ignoring objections from Democrats and voting-rights groups who called the new maps racially biased and drawn in an attempt to disenfranchise voters of color and lessen Democratic influence.
“The plan that was ultimately adopted was a gerrymander in the worst sense of the word,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas. “One that directly contradicted the views expressed by many residents who were able to participate in the comment period.”
“The new congressional map very definitely disenfranchises communities of color, reduces the political power of communities of color, and does so with willful intent,” he added.
The new congressional map moved the diverse northern part of Wyandotte County out of the 3rd District into the 2nd District, and took Democrat-leaning Lawrence out of Douglas County, placing it into the heavily conservative 1st District, which extends to the Colorado border.
Critics say the map divided the Kansas City metro area to make it more difficult for the state’s only Democrat in Congress, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, to win reelection.
Several voting-rights advocacy groups, including the ACLU, filed lawsuits on behalf of Wyandotte County and Lawrence residents concerning the new map. Wyandotte County District Court Judge Bill Klapper found the congressional map unconstitutional, but the Kansas Supreme Court reversed Klapper’s decision in May.
Kubic said communities of color were now feeling the effects of that decision.
“Voters of color, especially in Johnson and Wyandotte counties, have been able to craft electoral alliances with white voters to elect a candidate of their choice,” Kubic said. “The new congressional maps make that outcome much less likely, intentionally redrawing communities of color into districts where those alliances are unable to produce a voting majority.”
Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com,may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/10/20/kansas-voters-with-disabilities-blocked-by-restrictive-legislation-voting-rights-advocates-say/
by Roxie Hammill, Kansas Reflector
The majority of public opinion already sides with Democratic candidates on issues like expansion of Medicaid, legalized medical marijuana and protection of kids from discrimination, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a stop Wednesday in Kansas City, Kansas.
Who wins the midterms, he said, may come down to the turnout.
On issues, “We’ve already won the argument,” he said. “But here’s the thing, just because you’ve won the argument doesn’t mean you’ll win the election.”
He urged the about 300 in the audience to work their hardest to get out the vote.
The former presidential candidate gave the supportive crowd a pep talk as early voting is set to begin in the midterm elections for Congressional, state legislative and governors races, blasting Republicans for their emphasis on culture wars.
“They seem to be single-mindedly focused on the culture war issues that divide us. And you’ve got to ask why,” he said. “And I think the answer is that we have reached the point where the majority is with us on issue after issue after issue.”
Buttigieg spoke on behalf of Democratic get-out-the-vote organization Kansas Common Sense. In particular, he mentioned U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids and Gov. Laura Kelly, neither of whom were in attendance, although he recognized Davids’ mother. Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quentin Lucas and Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner, also in the audience, got a shoutout.
Buttigieg’s remarks were heavy on references to former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his tax cuts. Brownback’s income tax cuts “prove what happens when somebody practices all the way to the extremes, a philosophy of cutting taxes for the wealthiest and cutting services to everybody else,” he said.
Brownback has been the frequent subject of negative campaign ads against Republican candidates who once worked with him, and Buttigieg continued in that vein, reminding the crowd that the Brownback tax cuts depleted the Kansas highway fund and public school funding.
He spent a few minutes praising Kelly for working across the aisle to eliminate sales tax on groceries.
“Isn’t it nice to have a governor who has seen to it that for four years in a row public schools have been fully funded in the state of Kansas,” he said.
After joking for a minute about the life changes that go with parenting, Buttigieg said the GOP has its focus in the wrong spot when it comes to schools. The most important thing is not “whether they’re going home to two moms and two dads but whether they get home safe and making sure they do,” he said.
He also mentioned his own faith, saying, “God does not belong to a political party.”
Some of the loudest and longest applause of the event was when Buttigieg mentioned the national attention Kansas received in August, when voters rejected an amendment that would have removed protection of the right to abortion from the Kansas Constitution.
“You sent a helluva message to the country,” he said.
The nation will be watching again in the midterms, he said: “This is going to be a razor thin election.”
The event drew people to the union hall for a number of reasons. But some in the audience said beforehand that they liked what they remembered of Buttigieg from his days as a presidential candidate.
Carol Henderson of Overland Park said she’s a fan.
“I love Pete Buttigieg,” she said. “I think he’s reasonable, and explains things in a way you can understand.”
“I think he’s the future,” said Janice Sandt of Lenexa, though he wasn’t her first choice of presidential candidates when he ran in 2020. Sandt said she likes his speaking style. But he also appeals on a more personal level.
“I’m a lesbian with a wife,” Sandt said. “I think it’s fantastic to have a non-traditional candidate. It normalizes things.”
Buttigieg is the first openly gay person confirmed to the cabinet.
While historically, midterm elections have been difficult for the party in power, the doom saying wasn’t universally subscribed to at the event. Donnell Jackson and Barbara Ikerd, both United Auto Workers members from Kansas City, Kansas, said they came out to support Kelly and Davids, although the new congressional district lines keep them from voting for Davids again this year.
And Frieda Smith of Overland Park said, “We see a lot of really positive things happening in Johnson County. I think the message is there that Democrats care for people.”
There was one dissenter. A woman who held a sign saying, “America First,” and “Amanda Adkins,” was told it was a closed rally and was asked to leave. Amanda Adkins is Davids’ Republican opponent.
Kansas Reflector stories, kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/10/19/buttigieg-rallies-behind-kansas-democrats-blasts-republicans-for-focus-on-culture-wars/