Voter turnout

On the Missouri side, some voter numbers were comparable to 2022, but early voting skyrocketed.

The national organization DJs at the Polls is coming to Kansas for the first time, inspired by the competitive U.S. Senate race. They've hired local DJs to spin tunes outside more than a dozen polling stations Tuesday.

In some areas of the Kansas City metro, election officials say early voting numbers are on track to outpace the 2024 election. Ballot measures on abortion and redistricting appear to be driving turnout in Missouri, while the Kansas side is being energized by close races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Republican Pat Proctor, Democrat Jennifer Day and United Kansas candidate Scott Morgan are running for Kansas secretary of state, the office in charge of managing elections. Here's a guide to the candidates running in the 2026 election.

Missouri lawmakers passed legislation in 2022 that established a photo ID requirement at the polls. The NAACP and voting rights group had sued, arguing that its intention was to disenfranchise large groups of people.

Missouri's legislature passed a law in 2022 allowing two weeks of "no excuse absentee" voting before Election Day. It's already proving popular, with turnouts approaching 20% of the total cast four years ago. Voters aren't dissuaded by the long wait times, though.

Southwest Kansas has the highest concentration of Latino residents in the state. But the area also has some of the lowest rates of people registered to vote and voter turnout. Young Latinos there are going back to the basics to try to get their communities more involved in politics.

Los demócratas han gozado durante mucho tiempo del apoyo de las organizaciones sindicales, pero muchos de sus afiliados ya no sienten lealtad a ningún partido. El representante del estado de Missouri, el republicano Bill Allen, y su oponente, la demócrata Shirley Mata, miembro del UAW, esperan ganarse a los votantes insatisfechos.

Aunque la población Latina de St. Louis y Missouri es todavía relativamente pequeña, está creciendo rápidamente. Los observadores políticos dicen que su voto podría ser cada vez más influyente en los años que vienen.

Though Missouri's Latino population is still relatively small, it’s growing rapidly. Political watchers say the vote could be increasingly influential in future elections, but reaching and convincing Latino voters is not simple.

Democrats have long enjoyed support from organized labor, but many union members don’t feel a party allegiance any more. Missouri state Rep. Bill Allen, a Republican, and his opponent, Democrat Shirley Mata, a UAW member, both hope to win over dissatisfied voters.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican who serves as the state’s chief elections officer, told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy there was cause to be “extremely concerned” about “a troubling pattern that persists in the U.S. Postal Service’s processing and handling of ballots.”