City in western Kansas violates voting rights of Hispanic residents, lawsuit says

Dodge City violates the voting rights of Hispanic and Latino residents by electing local leaders on an at-large basis, a lawsuit alleges, claiming the arrangement is unlawful under federal law.

The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday night by the ACLU of Kansas and other groups, marks a new attempt to challenge election methods in the state. The organization this spring helped mount an unsuccessful challenge against new congressional districts drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature that divided Wyandotte County, one of the state’s most ethnically and racially diverse areas.

Hispanic and Latino residents make up 65% of the western Kansas city’s total population and nearly half of its voting-age population. But for over 20 years, they have been unable to elect their preferred candidate, the lawsuit alleges.

“Dodge City’s at-large scheme intentionally and effectively dilutes the political voices of Latine Kansans in Dodge City. This system is reflective of a broader problem in Kansas, where those in power systematically seek to diminish minority voters and exclude them from the governing process,” ACLU of Kansas legal director Sharon Brett said in a statement, using a gender-neutral term to refer to Latino or Latina individuals that is also used in the lawsuit.

“The Latine population in Dodge City deserves equal voice in shaping their local government, and federal law demands it.”

The ACLU of Kansas, UCLA’s Voting Rights Project and the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP are bringing the lawsuit on behalf of Miguel Coca and Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, Latinos who are both registered to vote in Dodge City.

In a statement, city manager Nickolaus Hernandez said the city “believes the complaint fails to provide a more complete picture of our current method of at-large commission elections and municipal activities, as it relates to several other cities of the same size and structure across Kansas.”

“We are eager and always open to having fruitful conversations with our community members that drive meaningful change for the good of our entire city. We intend to specifically extend that invitation to the groups who filed this complaint. We welcome the dialogue and look forward to the opportunity to help advance our great city, and build upon our rich, unique and diverse population,” Hernandez said.

The lawsuit claims it would be possible for the city to elect the five commissioners based on geographic districts that would allow Hispanic and Latino residents to elect the candidate of their choice in at least two of five districts.

The ACLU of Kansas alleges the at-large districts violate section two of the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. The lawsuit also says the at-large districts violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and the 15th Amendment, which prohibits denying the right to vote because of race.

“Dodge City’s at-large method of elections has shut out Latine voices from the political system for over twenty years. We are proud to represent our clients in fighting for a system that will allow them and other Latino voters in Dodge City to have the opportunity to elect candidates of choice,” Sonni Waknin, program manager and voting rights Counsel at the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said in a statement.

Joseph Nuci, Jr., a current Dodge City Commissioner, pushed back on the lawsuit’s claims in a statement Friday.

“I am proud of my rich Latino heritage, and of my family’s immigrant roots, and I’m also honored to serve the people of Dodge City as a public servant,” Nuci said. “The claim and reports that frame Dodge City as not having elected representation of a Latino on the commission are categorically false, they misrepresent our commission, and are merely an attempt to divide our great city.”

The ACLU of Kansas previously challenged the local county clerk’s decision in 2018 to move a polling place open to thousands of residents outside city limits. The clerk eventually agreed to add more polling places.

ACLU Lawsuit Against Dodge City by The Kansas City Star on Scribd