Low voter turnout for small Missouri House and Kansas City school board races

Turnout was low in Kansas City and eastern Jackson County for Tuesday’s special election that had voters deciding on two Missouri House races, a new school board member and two municipal questions.

Election officials said they anticipated an extremely low turnout given that so few races were on the ballot and because thousands of qualified voters were likely caught up in the Royals victory celebration and may have forgotten to vote.

Only 4,545 of the 60,000 qualified to vote in Kansas City, or 7 percent, cast votes.

While the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners’ sample ballot showed two candidates vying for a Kansas City Public Schools board seat, Lindsay Mathews had suspended her campaign and withdrawn from the race.

Matthew Oates, a 2003 Paseo Academy graduate who works for Burns & McDonnell Engineering, ran unopposed. He will fill the Subdistrict 2 seat left vacant by former board member Gunnar Hand, who left Kansas City to work in Los Angeles. The term runs until 2019.

Tuesday night’s unofficial tally showed DaRon McGee, a Democrat, got 1,485 votes, or nearly 57 percent, to claim the Missouri House seat for District 36 to replace Democrat Kevin McManus. Nola Wood, a Republican, got 668 votes in that race; Mary Ann Drape, an independent candidate, got 444 votes, and Timothy E. Peterman, a Libertarian, got 16.

Rory Rowland, a Democrat, got 2,142 votes to claim the District 29 seat in the Missouri House to replace Republican Noel Torpey, who resigned last year. Brian DeMoss, a Republican, got 1,340 votes and Richard W. McKie, running on a Constitution Party ticket, got 196.

Independence had two issues on the ballot. Voters decided against a one-eighth of 1 percent sales tax to fund capital improvements including construction, repair and maintenance of facilities and equipment. But they voted for a one-eighth of 1 percent sales tax to pay for capital improvements, maintenance, equipment and training for the Fire Department.

In Oak Grove, voters decided against replacing a one-quarter of 1 percent sales tax for capital improvements with a tax of one-half of 1 percent. The tax would have funded streets, storm drainage, sewer, water and other improvements.

Another part of that same question would have replaced the present one-quarter of 1 percent sales tax for local parks with a one-half of 1 percent tax to fund parks and pools.

However, the Oak Grove vote count was incomplete on Tuesday, as Lafayette County officials said they held 13 votes that would not be counted until Thursday. The difference in the Oak Grove election stood at 13 on Tuesday, with 261 against and 248 in favor.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Low voter turnout for small Missouri House and Kansas City school board races."