The Aug. 26 recall election for Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. will likely be pushed back. The county legislature set the election for next month, but court action will probably delay that.
One case filed by a group of citizens asked a Jackson County judge to enforce the Aug. 26 date. The Jackson County and Kansas City election boards filed a lawsuit that asked a separate judge to order the recall to appear on the Nov. 4 regular fall ballot.
The boards argued a special election could cost $2 million, and dates to mail military ballots and start absentee voting have already passed.
Those two cases have now been combined and a hearing set for Aug. 1, according to the online docket.
“As days click by, that August 26 date is not seeming as feasible as it did a few weeks ago,” the citizens’ lawyer Phil LeVota said.
Complicating all of this: Jackson County Legislator Megan Smith filed a new ordinance Monday calling for the election to be held November 4th.
That ordinance was sent to the legislature’s Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee, but no hearing date was set.
The politics side hasn’t been quiet, either.
On July 9, White donated $10,000 to his campaign committee, according to online Missouri Ethics Commission data. His last campaign finance report showed White had almost $5,000 cash on hand following his reelection in 2022.
One candidate is already ready to run in the Democratic primary next August. Stacy Lake lost to White by six points in the primary three years ago. She reactivated her campaign committee July 1, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission.
She is in the race whether White is recalled or not. "I'm in the 2026 primary no matter who my primary opponent will be," she said.
