KC voters receive outdated information on election site as early voting starts
As early voting starts in Kansas City for the August primary election under Missouri’s new, gerrymandered election map, some voters may have received outdated information before casting their ballots. Kansas City Election Board officials say the mix-up is because they’re waiting for their license to use the state’s mapping software to renew.
Republican lawmakers in Missouri passed a contentious new congressional map last fall, splitting Kansas City residents into three separate districts that span large swaths of the state, in an effort to flip the 5th District that has long been held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat.
Following two landmark rulings from the state’s high court affirming the new maps, as well as directives from Missouri’s secretary of state and attorney general, local election boards, including the KCEB, prepared August ballots to account for the changes to voters’ districts.
The KCEB expected the new maps would change more than 100,000 of its registered voters’ congressional districts.
However, when early voting began, the KCEB had not updated its public-facing digital resources to reflect the new districts. In addition, the board sent out election notification cards to voters with outdated information that have not yet been corrected, KCEB Democratic Director Lauri Ealom told The Star on Wednesday afternoon.
“We didn’t think it was a good idea, but we had a deadline,” Ealom told The Star Wednesday.
Under Missouri’s previous map, all KCEB voters were part of the Fifth Congressional District. The new map rezones some voters into the Fourth and Sixth districts, currently represented by Republicans Mark Alford and Sam Graves, respectively.
Election notification cards went out to voters in February, Ealom said, before the KCEB received guidance around the new map in May. The board plans to send a second round of updated cards in early July at a cost of $100,000, Ealom said, but it is waiting for final guidance from the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State.
The KCEB website features maps of districts in Kansas City divided by each relevant electoral race. As of Wednesday afternoon, all of the maps featured were last updated in 2023. The KCEB has not uploaded a new congressional district map to its website, which now reflects in some cases an outdated division of the districts in which residents are eligible to vote.
Voters are being handed the correct ballots when they arrive for early voting, but the maps on the KCEB website do not reflect the new map. Residents who search for their district by inputting their name and date of birth are also directed based on the old map as of Wednesday.
Ealom said that the KCEB intends to put up an updated congressional map as soon as possible and is currently working off of a detailed hand-drawn copy. However, the election board’s license to use the state’s mapping software has expired, she said, and the body is waiting for the ability to redraw and upload a digitally optimized map.
The KCEB is hoping to expedite the licensing process in order to have updated maps on the website within about a week, Ealom said.
“We can then do it in the GIS software so the map doesn’t look like a kindergartener did it,” Ealom said.
Updating the website’s search feature so that residents can get accurate district information when they search by name and date of birth, she said, relies on a dataset released directly to local election boards by the state. The new dataset has been loaded onto the poll machines used at precincts, but has not yet been released to the KCEB website, she said, which is why voters are only getting accurate information in person so far.
Additionally, both the old and new copies of the map are currently posted on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website, Ealom said, causing further confusion.
“A lot of this is out of our hands,” Ealom said. “Who knows, come August. We’re following what the law is now. I don’t know what the law is going to be after this. We may very well be doing the same thing again…for now, we will ensure that the voters are voting on the right ballot.”
Ealom said that she encourages residents to call the KCEB directly at (816) 842-4820 for up-to-date information on which district they will be voting in.
“All I can ask is that voters be patient,” Ealom said. “We’ve been fielding calls all day… it’s imperative that the public understand what it is that they’re supposed to do.”
The August primary will take place across 440 precincts at 73 voting sites, according to KCEB data. About 223,000 Jackson County residents are registered to vote in the primary, which includes the Jackson County Executive and Legislative races along with state-level races.
Early voting in the primary began Tuesday for absentee voters with an excuse. Those who qualify can cast a ballot in person at the KCEB office, located at 4407 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
No-excuse absentee voting begins July 21 at 7 satellite locations around Kansas City, while residents can request a mail-in absentee ballot until July 22.
