Why are there no Spanish ballots in Wyandotte County? Groups call for changing that

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After advocacy groups accused Wyandotte County’s election commissioner of refusing to meet about offering Spanish ballots, he proposed a meeting with them weeks later — after the November general election for local races.

The ACLU of Kansas and nine other organizations have been calling on Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Michael Abbott to provide ballots in languages other than English to accommodate the county’s growing minority population. In an Aug. 24 letter they publicized last week, the advocates said Abbott declined to meet with them about expanding language access.

“We were certainly surprised by this denial, given our shared interest in a strong, healthy democracy with Mr. Abbott,” Leslie Butsch, field organizing director of the ACLU of Kansas, said last week.

Then on Thursday morning of this week, Abbott told The Star he reached back out to the groups to propose a meeting with them at his office following the election, during which voters will decide on Unified Government commission races, among other local races.

The election office has not committed to providing Spanish ballots. In a news release Thursday, the office said it “recognizes and celebrates the vibrant diversity” of the county.

“In addition, the Wyandotte County Election Office has a history of, and will continue to, provide approved forms readily available on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website in alternative languages when requested by the voters of Wyandotte County,” the office said.

Six counties in Kansas must print ballots in other languages under the federal Voting Rights Act because more than 5% of Hispanic voting-age citizens there, or 10,000 total, are limited-English proficient and have collectively low educational rates.

Wyandotte County did not meet that threshold at last count in 2021, though it is on track to in the coming years.

Still, the advocacy groups say the county should provide election materials in Spanish on its own. The advocates said 10 other Kansas counties make some information available in languages other than English, even though they are not required to do so.

“The additional counties are pursuing language access not because they are obligated to, but because they recognize that doing so serves a real need, builds community trust, increases voter turnout and strengthens democracy,” they wrote in their letter.

The groups that penned the letter include the Hispanic empowerment nonprofit El Centro and the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, a social justice organization.

After the advocacy groups initially requested a meeting, Abbott in September said he did not have time to meet, noting the November election and the presidential primary election in March.

“My office is in the middle of getting ballots ready, getting polling locations finalized, election workers staffed, and in full election mode for the upcoming November General Election,” he wrote Sept. 13.

Appointed in 2021 by Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Abbott also said the issue was outside of his office’s purview, saying he follows state and federal laws on ballot language.

In a news release, Judy Ancel, president of the nonprofit Cross Border Network for Justice and Solidarity, said Abbott “inherently misunderstands the law,” which does not prohibit his office from adding Spanish election information.

Counties that provide Spanish election materials

The six counties that are required to provide materials in Spanish are in the state’s southwest region, which has long been home to immigrant communities, in part because of work at meatpacking plants.

They are Finney, Ford, Grant, Haskell, Seward and Stevens counties.

Neither of the state’s two most populous counties, Johnson and Sedgwick, provide election materials in languages other than English, according to a May report by the ACLU of Kansas. That’s despite the fact that those counties also have the “largest populations with limited English proficiency,” the organization wrote.

The election offices in Wyandotte, Johnson, Sedgwick and Shawnee counties are run by appointed election commissioners because at least 130,000 people live there. Elections in other counties are run by county clerks.

Shawnee County, home to Topeka, is among the 10 counties that are not required to provide multi-language access, but do so anyway. Others include Rawlins and Gove counties.

Less than 14% of Shawnee County’s residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Meanwhile, more than 30% of Wyandotte County’s population is Hispanic or Latino, and they make up the county’s largest language minority group.

Residents in KCK can find Spanish and English signage in government buildings. Among other things, the Unified Government recently held its first community engagement event for Spanish speakers to voice opinions on planning and development policy.

But the county does not meet the threshold to require printing Spanish voting materials. One of the requirements, as mandated by Congress, is that a jurisdiction must have more than 5%, or at least 10,000 people, of voting-age citizens who “are members of a single language minority group, have depressed literacy rates and do not speak English” well, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Last year, during a primary election, the ACLU heard reports of a Wyandotte County polling location that “failed to provide any Spanish-speaking poll workers, signage or translated ballots,” which the nonprofit said led to “large groups of voters” walking away without casting their votes.

In their recent letter, the advocacy groups also noted that Wyandotte County’s election office’s website is only in English. Voters in Shawnee County, meanwhile, can find a Spanish tab for how to register to vote in Kansas on their election office’s website.

“We are voters of Wyandotte County, and we believe that language access is essential to building a stronger democracy — not just for voters who have limited-English proficiency, but for anyone who simply feels more comfortable in another language,” said Aude Negrete Banos, executive director of the Latino Community Network. “This is for all of us.”

The Star’s Mike Hendricks contributed to this report.