Get ready, get set ... vote. Here’s your guide for Tuesday’s elections
Voters across the Kansas City region go to the polls Tuesday to make decisions on a slew of local candidates and issues, including mayors, school board members and a new single terminal for Kansas City International Airport.
After years of study, debate and controversy, Kansas Citians will be asked to replace the three-1970s-era “horseshoes” with a new privately financed passenger terminal. There is no tax increase involved in the $1 billion project, which would be built and operated exclusively with money from airlines, passengers and other airport users.
To get ready for the election and see what could be ahead for Kansas City, we flew into and out of Indianapolis International Airport (terminal opened in 2008), North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport (newest terminal finished in 2011) and into Southwest Florida International Airport near Fort Myers (opened in 2005). Check it out:
And here’s more from The Kansas City Star’s Editorial Board:
The KCI convenience myth: Kansas City’s outdated airport is familiar but not functional
Duct tape and expensive repairs won’t fix KCI. It’s time for something new
Two other ballot questions call for removal of small parcels of unneeded land from the park system. A sample ballot is at https://www.kceb.org/elections/ballot/
Overland Park
Overland Park voters will have their first contested mayoral race in more than a decade as three-term incumbent Carl Gerlach faces a challenge from former state Rep. Charlotte O’Hara. Other Johnson County mayoral seats, including Roeland Park, Edgerton, Fairway, Gardner, Merriam and De Soto, are on the ballot. Council seats in Overland Park, Lenexa, Mission, Olathe and Shawnee also will be decided.
Three seats on the seven-member Shawnee Mission School Board are open. The newly formed board is expected to choose a successor for former Superintendent Jim Hinson.
Read more here: In Shawnee Mission, a school board election with ‘the soul of the district’ on the line
Read The Kansas City Star Editorial Board’s endorsement.
A full listing of the races is at https://www.jocoelection.org/.
Lee’s Summit
In Lee’s Summitt, a special election will fill the 8th District Missouri Senate seat vacated this summer when state Sen. Will Kraus resigned to take a post with the Missouri Tax Commission. The race pits House Majority Leader Mike Cierpiot (R) against Democrat Hillary Shields (D), a co-founder of the grassroots group Indivisible Kansas City, and Jacob Turk, a serial Republican candidate who is running as an independent.
Cierpot accused Shields of “dirty political games” when her husband became one of 629 registered voters who signed a petition to help add Turk to the ballot.
A special election in Missouri House District 23 will fill a vacancy created in May by the resignation of Democrat Randy Dunn. Barbara Anne Washington, a Democrat, David Martin, a Republican, and Daniel Trott of the Green Party will face off.
Polls in Missouri will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Identification is required. You can find where to vote here.
Wyandotte County
In Wyandotte County, first-term Unified Government Mayor Mark Holland is opposed by David Alvey, a dean at Rockhurst High School and a member of the Board of Public Utilities.
Read The Kansas City Star Editorial Board’s endorsement.
Voters also will pick a sheriff, several county commissioners, members of the Board of Public Utilities and trustees for the board of Kansas City Kansas Community College. More information is at http://wycovotes.org//
Polls in Kansas are open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Photo identification is required. You can find where to vote here.
This story was originally published November 6, 2017 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Get ready, get set ... vote. Here’s your guide for Tuesday’s elections."