On Tuesday, a flyer was mailed to Ellis County constituents from Kansans United for Civil Liberties (KUCL) containing information regarding County Clerk candidates.
I anticipated this flyer and had a statement ready for my “no response” (“NOT refused to respond”) to explain why I chose not to answer any of the questions. I felt the voters needed an explanation and not just a yes or no answer. I would like to point out that the questions I received do not align with the statements on the flyer.
The first question was “If I was elected, I pledge to put a polling place on the FHSU Campus in 2025." While my answer to this would have been no, I felt an explanation was warranted as to why.
The flyer instead states: “Pledged to put polling places in locations that are more convenient for all of Ellis County eligible citizens."
Ms. Allen pledged “Yes." She has stated that she will put a polling place on campus if elected. My problem with this is why would the KUCL use misleading words of “convenient locations in Ellis County.” Ms. Allen has publicly stated it will be on FHSU campus. Would you consider this a convenient location, or did I get a different question than Ms. Allen?
The second question was asked about “expanding voting services, making curbside voting available, promoting early voting or vote-by-mail.
My response was “no response” (“NOT refused to respond”) because I felt the voters needed an explanation that every polling place are all ADA compliant as required by law, curbside voting has always been available, and my office promotes early voting and advance mail ballots.
The flyer instead says, “Pledge to guarantee that Ellis County polling locations are accessible and meet the needs of the residents with disabilities and senior citizens."
The flyer omits the statement regarding expanding services, making curbside voting available, early voting and advance mail ballots. I would ask Ms. Allen how she intends to better a process that is already in place and most are required by law.
The third question that did not make it on the flyer is “If elected will you use your authority as County Clerk to make Ellis County election information and voter registration available in Spanish starting in 2025?”
My answer was no response (“NOT refused to respond). I felt an explanation was needed that Ellis County is not required to supply Spanish materials because Ellis County does not fall within the required State-mandated parameters.
Ms. Allen pledged “Yes." If you vote for Ms. Allen, you can expect the election budget to increase. Therefore, your taxes will be raised as well because ballots and voting machines would be required to be printed and programmed in English and Spanish.
This would create unnecessary additional costs to you as a taxpayer to fulfill her pledge. I urge everyone who received this flyer to go to www.KansansUnited.org and see the actual questions and compare it to the flyer so you can discern for yourself the flyer is a total misrepresentation of the questions that were given.
The KUCL is a new PAC (Political Action Committee) seeded by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has been working with the students at FHSU and a few members of the community since last year, and their main agenda is a polling location on campus. This is an obvious tactic to polarize me in an unfavorable light by falsely misrepresenting the information on the flyer.
In closing, I urge my opponent Laura Allen to stand with me and make her own statement to let the voters know that this flyer is a distortion of the questions presented to both of us.
— Ellis County Clerk Bobbi Dreiling