photo by: Associated Press

In this Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004, file photo, a group of voters fill out their ballots at a table rather than wait for an empty voting booth at the Civic Center in Dodge City, Kan. (Michael Schweitzer/Dodge City Daily Globe via AP, File)

TOPEKA — A federal judge in Topeka said Thursday that he will rule soon on a request from the American Civil Liberties Union for an order directing Ford County to reopen the one polling place that has traditionally been used for the entire city of Dodge City.

The ACLU filed that lawsuit last week in response to Ford County Clerk Deborah Cox’s decision in September to move the polling place to the Western State Bank Expo Center, a facility that is outside the city limits and about a mile and a half away from the nearest bus stop.

The case has drawn national and even international attention because Dodge City, a town of more than 27,000 people, is nearly 60 percent Hispanic, many of whom are immigrants or first-generation Americans who were drawn to the area because of jobs in the local meatpacking industry.

During a hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree, witnesses testified about how inconvenient it is to have only one polling place for the entire city, and how much more inconvenient it will be to have it moved from the Civic Center in the middle of town to the Western State Bank Expo Center outside the city limits.

One of those witnesses was 18-year-old Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, a senior at Dodge City High School and president of the school’s student council, who is also one of the named plaintiffs in the case, along with the Kansas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC.

Testifying by phone, Rangel-Lopez said that as a child growing up, he often went to watch his father vote after his father became a citizen in 2004, and that he often had to wait in line for an hour or more to cast his ballot.

Others said the Civic Center is in a predominantly white part of the city that is inconvenient for people in the Hispanic community.

But the Expo Center, Rangel-Lopez said, is worse for many people because it is located outside of town on a state highway that has no sidewalks and is inaccessible to most people who do not have vehicles.

Other witnesses testified that the problem was compounded when, even after the decision was made to move the polling place, the Ford County Clerk’s office continued mailing out certificates of registration to 294 new registrants, listing their polling place as the Civic Center.

Cox, however, said that was because the voter registration certificates list the person’s “normal, regular place to vote.” She also said her office sent follow-up notices of the change to all 294 people who received cards with incorrect information.

photo by: Associated Press

This undated photo provided by the Ford County Government Center in Dodge City, Kan., shows County Clerk Debbie Cox. (Ford County Government Center via AP)

Cox also testified that she had no choice but to move the polling place because she was told in August that there would be construction going on at the Civic Center starting in October, although that construction still has not begun.

She also said her office, the city government and the local chamber of commerce have gone to great lengths to notify people of the change and to arrange free door-to-door transportation to any voter who requests a ride to the polling place.

Other witnesses, though, said they doubted that officials would be able to round up enough transportation, especially for the thousands of workers at the meatpacking plants, many of whom will all try to vote at the same time when their shift ends.

Cox, who has been the county clerk since 2016, testified that she has never done a study to determine how many people in the county rely on public transportation.

The ACLU is asking the court either to move the polling place back to the Civic Center, or allow the Civic Center to operate as a second polling place.

But Bryan Caskey, director of elections in the Kansas Secretary of State’s office, said that would be extremely difficult to do with just five days remaining before Election Day.

Under state law, Caskey said, every registered voter must be assigned to one polling place, and that information must be entered into the statewide voter registration database.

In addition, he said, each polling place in Ford County must have poll workers who are bilingual, because of the county’s large Spanish-speaking population. And each polling place must be equipped with voting devices that accommodate people with various disabilities.

Crabtree did not indicate when he would issue the ruling, but he did say he was aware of the time constraints.

“I know what day it is,” he said from the bench.