Critics slam move of lone polling place outside Kansas town

WICHITA, Kan. — Access to the ballot box in November will be more difficult for some people in Dodge City, where Latinos now make up 60 percent of its population and have remade a Wild West town that once was the destination of cowboys and buffalo hunters.

At a time when many rural towns are slowly dying, the arrival of two large meatpacking plants boosted Dodge City’s economy and transformed its demographics as immigrants from Mexico and other countries flooded in to fill the jobs.

But the city located 160 miles west of Wichita has only one polling site for its 27,000 residents. Since 2002, the lone site was at the civic center just blocks from the local country club — in the wealthy, white part of town.