BY: GRACE HILLS
Kansas Reflector
The ACLU of Kansas will provide a statewide voter assistance hotline for the 2024 primary and general elections, staffed by lawyers and on-site poll monitors to help voters with any issues or concerns.
The hotline offers assistance in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tagalog. Voters who call 1-866-OUR-VOTE will be connected with an attorney, thanks to a partnership with Kansas City law firm Stinson Leonard Street.
“Most of the issues we anticipate could be as simple as someone at the wrong polling location because they moved and didn’t update their information,” said staff attorney Kunyu Ching in a news release. “Historically, we’ve resolved the vast majority of calls quickly. In those cases, voters benefitted from just talking to one of our trained hotline attorneys about the next step they could take to make sure their votes counted.”
This is the ACLU’s sixth year providing the service. Calls are logged, tracked for trends and flagged for follow-up.
In August 2022, when the Kansasabortion amendment was on the ballot, the hotline reported that multiple voters were turned away from a polling location in Maize. They were in line before 7 p.m., meaning they were legally allowed to vote. According to Dawn Johanson for KSNT, a line of voters was wrapped around the building. Johanson said an election worker told the voters in line that computers were down and they needed to go to a different polling location.
The Mazie voters contacted the election protection hotline, which resulted in the county releasing a statement that night saying election workers “did not have the authority to make this decision.” Those who were turned away voted provisionally at a different polling location.
Ching, leads the hotline, said the ACLU is prepared to address serious issues. The primary Aug. 6 will come just days after a judge cleared the way for civic groups to resume voter registration.
Earlier this year, Micah Kubic, executive director for the Kansas ACLU, told Kansas Reflector about multiple bills from theKansas legislative session that could prevent people from voting. He referenced former president Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him as a reason.
“Amidst heightened attacks from the Legislature on our right to vote as well as a barrage of politicized rhetoric aimed at undermining faith in our election, the ACLU of Kansas remains determined to ensure that every vote counts and that voters have the assistance they need – because citizens actually participating makes our democracy stronger,” Kubic said in the news release.
Hotline calls will be answered live on the primary and general election days, and during weeks leading up to the elections during business hours.