With a ballot full of controversial amendments on the Missouri side and a U.S. Senate race in Kansas getting national attention, more people across the Kansas City metro are voting early this election than in the last midterm.
Some counties have even seen double the amount of early voters — but with many of the top races rated as toss-ups by national political analysts, it's not clear which way these elections will go.
Missouri
More than 51,000 people have voted early on the Missouri side of the Kansas City area as of Tuesday. Advance, no-excuse voting began last Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Kansas City Election Board Republican Director Shawn Kieffer said Missouri’s ballot issues are helping to drive turnout. That includes the bitter redistricting fight now represented in Proposition A — which, if approved, would enshrine the congressional map approved by the Missouri General Assembly last year that reshapes the 5th District to make it lean Republican.
Other measures capturing voter attention are Amendment 3, which would reinstate an abortion ban in Missouri, and Amendment 6, which would make it harder for state lawmakers to overturn voter-driven ballot issues.
South of the river in Kansas City, Missouri, 14,103 had voted as of Monday night. Kieffer said that early voting turnout was on pace to nearly match 2024, and well ahead of any other previous election.
At least another 14,700 people have already voted in eastern Jackson County outside of Kansas City.
As of midday Tuesday 15,131 people had cast ballots in Clay County. Sarah Woodward, Republican Director of the Clay County Board of Election Commissioners, said that’s roughly half the early votes cast in the 2024 presidential election by this point, but more than double the tally by this time in 2022.
In Platte County, 6,815 people had voted as of 3:00 p.m. Tuesday. Platte County Director of Elections Chris Hershey says that’s well ahead of the early turnout in 2022, but far less than the early vote in 2024, when 81% of eligible voters turned out.
Kansas
Advance voting in Kansas began Wednesday, Oct. 14. As of Tuesday, more than 245,000 Kansans had voted early.
That’s up about 80% from the last midterm election in 2022, and up about 50% from the 2018 midterm — the last time President Donald Trump was in office.
Those numbers are a combination of returned mail-in ballots and votes in person.
Michael Abbott, election commissioner for Wyandotte County, said that the county has seen almost double the number of in-person voters this year.
He attributes the enormous turnout to the high-profile statewide races on the ballot, the two local tax initiatives on the county ballot — one to fund homeless and community services, one to fund improvement projects in Kansas City, Kansas, specifically — and the Kansas constitutional amendment over non-citizen voting.
Both the Kansas governor, between Republican Ty Masterson and Democrat Cindy Holscher, and the U.S. Senate race, between Republican incumbent Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton, have been declared a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, which analyzes election polling.
The constitutional amendment would essentially change the state constitution from reading that “every” citizen can vote to “only” citizens can vote, which opponents say targets immigrants. Wyandotte County has one of the highest immigrant populations in the state.
Johnson County has seen an increase in early voting, too. Almost 90,000 people have voted early this year, compared to almost 56,000 in 2022. That’s despite the closure of eight early voting locations, primarily in less affluent areas.
Trump is set to visit Kansas for a second time this election season to campaign for Marshall on Saturday. He’s asking Republicans to vote as if he’s on the ballot.
Historically, turnout favors Democrats this midterm election, since there tends to be a larger turnout against the party in power.
