KC Election Board moves ahead with gerrymandered Missouri map. Half of voters affected
The Kansas City Election Board plans to move ahead using Missouri’s new gerrymandered congressional map, unlike other area election authorities.
More than 100,000 registered voters under the Kansas City Election Board’s jurisdiction are expected to change congressional districts, Shawn Kieffer, the Republican director for the Kansas City Election Board, said Thursday morning.
The Kansas City Election Board covers residents within the limits of Kansas City who live south of the Missouri River. Under the previous map, all Kansas City Election Board voters were part of the Fifth Congressional District, represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver.
Under the Trump-backed new map, the election board’s territory would be split in three, adding two new districts: the Fourth district, represented by Republican Mark Alford, and the Sixth district, represented by Republican Sam Graves.
Upcoming election in Missouri
These new districts could be put to the test in less than three months. Missourians will go to the polls on Aug. 4 to decide the U.S. House of Representatives candidates on the ballot in the November general election.
However, a statewide referendum campaign called People Not Politicians turned in more than 305,000 signatures to force a statewide vote on the map. Despite that signature turn-in, Republican state officials argued the new map was still in effect, defying decades of precedent.
But a Missouri Supreme Court decision leaves the possibility that the gerrymandered map could be retroactively suspended and a question of whether to use the map placed on the ballot in November. This is because the court’s seven judges ruled that it was “impossible to say” whether the map is in effect until Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins certifies the referendum for the ballot.
Hoskins, the state’s top election official and staunch supporter of the gerrymandered map, has until Aug. 4 — the same day as the August primary elections — to determine whether the campaign collected enough signatures to reach the Nov. 3 ballot.
While the nearby Jackson County and Clay County Election Boards say they’re in limbo, the Kansas City Election Board is moving ahead to redistrict its territory ahead of the August primary election.
Getting ballots ready for the election is “a massive undertaking,” Kieffer said.
“This is roughly one-third of our area, and it represents about 50% of our registered voters. It’s a big one,” Kieffer said.
Kansas City Election Board’s plan
KC election board leader explains reasoning
The Kansas City election board is moving forward with the redistricted map, even though the map still could be revoked.
Kieffer explained the reasoning.
“We don’t see any constitutional issue with going forward. It went through the Supreme Court a couple days ago, and nothing has been changed, and at this point, those are the new lines. And we plan to go forward, unless we’re told differently.”
If the ballot measure against the redistricted map is approved by the Secretary of State, Kieffer said, “that’s something that I would turn over to my attorneys and let them give me direction on how we should proceed.”
The election board staff is in contact with its attorneys and the Secretary of State’s Office, according to Kieffer.
The Kansas City Election Board is waiting for final guidance from Secretary of State Hoskins before beginning the work to move voters to different districts.
“This is a massive project, we’re moving 163 precincts, over 100,000 voters — we’re splitting four precincts. It’s a big project, and we make sure that we have a directive from (the Secretary of State’s Office) to go forward, and that’s what we’re sort of waiting on.”
How will this affect voters?
Half of Kansas City voters are expected to cast a ballot in a different congressional race than 2024. The election board will handle everything — voters do not need to register again.
Kieffer plans to get everyone moved to their new districts in the next three to five weeks, by June 19 at the latest.
Then, voters will be able to look up their voter registration on kceb.org/voters/status
Soon, voters will receive new voter ID cards in the mail with information about their new congressional district.
And 10 days before the election, the election board will send voter notification cards with information about polling places.
The Star’s Kacen Bayless, Ilana Arougheti, Jenna Ebbers, Jack Harvel and Matthew Kelly contributed.
