Nearly 30% of the Kansas City area voted before Election Day. Here’s where
On the eve of the 2024 general election, more than 400,000 people had already cast their votes in the five counties that make up the Kansas City metro area.
The metro is served by six election boards, each of which has its own method of tracking early voter turnout. Lines have stretched for hours at some early voting locations, and Election Day is set to drive turnout even higher.
Here’s a closer look at how many voters had cast their ballots early, as of Monday afternoon:
How many people have voted early in the Kansas City area
Kansas City: More than 54,000 people voted early in the portion of Kansas City within Jackson County. That number combines early in-person voters and absentee ballots received as of 1 p.m. Monday.
That’s around 23.2% of the 233,970 voters registered in that jurisdiction.
Jackson County: More than 38,000 people voted early in the rest of Jackson County, both in person and through mailed absentee ballots.
That’s around 13.8% of the county’s roughly 278,000 registered voters outside Kansas City limits.
Clay County: More than 56,000 people voted early in Clay County. This number combines no-excuse early voting and absentee votes received.
Altogether, that’s around 30.3% of the county’s roughly 186,000 registered voters.
Platte County: More than 21,000 people voted early in person in Platte County. The county’s election office wasn’t planning to release mail-in absentee ballot totals until election night, although in 2020 the number was around 18,500 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just the early in-person votes cast make up around 26.5% of the county’s 82,808 registered voters.
Johnson County: More than 209,000 people voted early in Johnson County through Monday, according to advance voting numbers on the county’s election office website.
That’s around 43.1% of the county’s 478,877 registered voters as of Thursday, Oct. 31.
Wyandotte County: More than 26,000 people had voted early in Wyandotte County as of Saturday, Nov. 2. That’s around 27.7% of the county’s 94,430 registered voters.
Altogether, that’s approximately 400,346 early votes cast in the metro — and more will likely be added to this total when the rest of Monday’s in-person and absentee vote totals are released.
Out of the roughly 1.35 million registered voters in these six jurisdictions, that means approximately 29.6% of Kansas City area voters had already cast their ballots before Election Day.
How many polling places will be open on Election Day in Kansas City?
Significant early voting crowds have led to long lines at the polls around the metro over the past two weeks. But on Tuesday, the number of available polling places will increase significantly to handle the influx of Election Day voters.
Here’s how many polling places each election board had open for early voting, and how many they will have open on Election Day:
- Kansas City — Early: 6, Election Day: 79
- Jackson County — Early: 2, Election Day: 126
- Clay County — Early: 3, Election Day: 83
- Platte County — Early: 1, Election Day: 29
- Johnson County — Early: 18, Election Day: 142
- Wyandotte County — Early: 5, Election Day: 30
In total, that means there will be 489 polling places open Tuesday, Nov. 5. Unlike during early voting, you must report to a specific, assigned polling place on Election Day in order to cast your ballot.
In Kansas, you can find your assigned polling place by entering your name and date of birth into the VoterView portal online.
In Missouri, you can find your polling place by entering your name, date of birth, county of residence and the last four digits of your Social Security number into the secretary of state’s voter registration lookup tool.
Do you have more questions about the 2024 general election? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 4:17 PM.
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