Kansas voters turned out in high numbers on Tuesday to weigh in on contentious races for governor and the U.S. Senate.
The Kansas secretary of state’s office said at least 1 million votes were cast, and officials think that’s in the state's top three for voter turnout in a nonpresidential election year.
That surge was seen in Johnson County, where about 62% of registered voters cast their ballot, according to unofficial results.
County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt called the turnout “phenomenal” and said it was the third-largest number of ballots cast in the office’s history, behind the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.
“It's always about races on the ballot and questions on the ballot, and our voters were excited about participating in casting their ballot and in democracy and having their voices heard, and they really showed up,” Schmidt said.
Wyandotte County also saw a spike in voters with about 45% casting their vote, according to unofficial results. That’s compared to 38% in the 2022 midterm election.
Michael Abbott, the county’s election commissioner, said the races and constitutional amendment drew voters out in high numbers.
But he also attributes the turnout to two local tax initiatives on the county ballot. One would have funded homeless and community services and the other would have funded improvement projects in Kansas City, Kansas, specifically — but voters rejected both sales taxes.
On the Missouri side, some areas of the Kansas City metro saw numbers comparable to the 2022 midterm election. That includes Jackson, Clay, Cass and Platte counties.
One exception is in Kansas City, where turnout rose to about 43% in 2026 — up by nearly five points from 2022. Kansas City Election Board Republican Director Shawn Kieffer said Missouri’s hot-topic ballot issues helped to drive turnout.
Voters shot down Amendment 3 and Proposition A, keeping abortion legal in Missouri and rejecting the Trump-backed congressional map lawmakers approved last year. They passed Amendment 6, which makes it harder for state lawmakers to overturn voter-driven ballot issues.
“We expected a little bit higher turnout based on those issues, and that's what we got,” Kieffer said.
Jackson County election officials said there were a few long lines at bigger polling places, but they moved quickly. But there was some confusion for voters who moved to a different jurisdiction on where they should vote.
Sara Zorich, the county’s Democratic elections director, said Missouri requires voters to visit the main office of the election authority they're moving into on Election Day to change their address. They can vote at the central location, rather than heading to their new poll.
“There was a lot of that happening between us, Platte County, Clay County and Kansas City, and I think that was very frustrating to voters,” Zorich said.
Early voting skyrocketed across metro
Across both states, more people voted early in the election than in the last midterm. In some counties, those numbers doubled, including in Wyandotte County, where early in-person voters rose to 17,080 from 7,708 in 2022.
In Platte County, election officials said they had just under 7,000 absentee voters in 2022. This year, they saw just over 14,000 absentee voters.
Election Director Chris Hershey said the no-excuse absentee option to vote was new in 2022.
“I think folks weren't used to it yet, didn't know how quickly they could get in and out here at our office,” Hershey said. “Each year that we've had that as an option, people have taken more and more advantage of it. “
Election officials in Johnson County said 167,000 people voted early in person, compared to almost 56,000 in 2022 — and despite eight early voting locations closing this year, primarily in less affluent areas of the county.
Schmidt said the county set a record for the number of voters casting their ballot on the Monday before an election day.
In Jackson County, election officials said there were almost 27,000 people who voted absentee, and Zorich said she only expects that number to keep growing in future elections.
“They think that they're going to get to the poll ahead of time. They don't have to go on Election Day. They don't want to wait in line,” Zorich said. “But actually, people waited in line less on Election Day than they did when it came to no-excuse voting.”
Kieffer said he thinks it would be beneficial to have more early voting locations in busier elections.
