Stuck at home? You still have the right to vote. Here are resources in Kansas City
Editor’s note: This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaboration on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
The 2024 presidential election is almost upon us, with reminders circulating about voting locations and best practices for visiting the polls Tuesday, Nov. 5.
But even if you can’t visit your polling place in person, you’re still entitled to the voting rights other citizens enjoy — and accommodations exist to ensure you can participate in democracy.
The Kansas City Election Board has a variety of programs available to make voting more accessible, from automatic absentee ballot applications to mobile voting teams delivering ballots all the way up to Election Day.
Here’s a closer look at what resources exist for disabled and homebound voters in Kansas City.
Permanent absentee voting
If you find it difficult to leave your home or go to the polls due to a disability or old age, you might qualify for the Kansas City Election Board’s permanent absentee voting program. In order to apply, you simply must affirm that you consider yourself to be permanently disabled — no doctor’s note required.
Voters on the election board’s permanent absentee voting list are automatically sent an absentee ballot application for every election in which they are eligible to vote. However, they are not automatically sent a ballot — you must sign and return the application for every election in order to get the absentee ballot mailed to you.
One-time absentee voters in Missouri are required to get their ballot notarized before returning it — but permanently disabled voters are not. This should make it easier to vote without leaving your home.
To apply for the permanent absentee voting program, simply print and fill out the short application found on the Kansas City Election Board’s website, kceb.org, and mail it to the following address:
Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners
Attn: Absentee Department
4407 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64130
Polling place accessibility in Kansas City
If you’re able to make it to the polls in Kansas City but have other accessibility needs, help is available both on Election Day and before at the central polling location inside The Whole Person, 3710 Main St. in Midtown, according to an election board brochure.
This ADA-compliant polling place has ballots for every ward and precinct in the city and features accommodations for a variety of disabilities. The special equipment includes a ballot-marking machine that is compatible with many personal assistive devices, like adaptive clickers and breath-powered devices.
This ballot-marking device also includes a Braille keyboard and headphone jack where visually impaired voters can connect headphones and listen to the ballot read aloud. It even has the option to darken the screen for maximum privacy.
If you can get a ride to the polls but don’t have the mobility to make it inside the building, the Whole Person location also offers curbside voting. You will have to wait until two election judges are available to come to your vehicle and help you vote, so it may be a good idea to arrive around midday, when the polls are less crowded.
You can also get assistance filling out your ballot from someone you bring along or from election judges. In either case, the person assisting you will have to certify that you asked them to do so.
Mobile voting
Mobile voting in Kansas City provides a last-minute effort to make voting as accessible as possible to those who aren’t able to make it to the polls. Shawn Kieffer, one of the two directors of the Kansas City Election Board, said that his office uses this measure only when it’s too late to request a ballot by mail.
“If we have time, we’ll send them another ballot,” he said of disabled or otherwise incapacitated people who didn’t receive their absentee ballot through the permanent absentee voting program. “If we can handle it through the mail, we will.”
However, some voters don’t know until right before the election that they won’t be able to make it to the polling place. This includes people who get sick or injured close to Election Day, absentee voters who never get their ballots in the mail and people who are hospitalized or move into a nursing home without time to request a ballot.
“They would just have to call in,” Kieffer said. “It is our discretion if there’s an issue outside somebody’s control.”
In these cases, the Kansas City Election Board provides a mobile voting option. A team of two trained volunteers — one from each major political party — are deputized as election judges and make visits to hospitals, nursing homes and private residences to bring voters their ballots. The team then transfers the ballots securely back to the election office and ensure they are counted.
Kieffer added that generally, requests for ballots made two weeks or more before Election Day will be handled by mail. But once that window shrinks to less than two weeks, the office may choose to send out a mobile voting team to ensure the ballot gets returned on time.
You can contact the Kansas City Election Board about its voting accessibility services by calling 816-842-4820 or emailing kceb@kceb.org.
Do you have more questions about voting accessibility in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published September 12, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
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