KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ When voters in Missouri and Kansas go to the polls Tuesday, they'll be doing more than selecting candidates for November. They'll be at the center of a live experiment to help determine whether statewide elections can be held safely during a pandemic.
It will cap a monthslong effort by officials in both states to strike a balance that allows voters to safely cast their ballot while holding down lines and minimizing the potential for testy confrontations over masks.
Some Missourians voted in sparsely attended municipal elections in June. Kansans haven't cast a ballot since the virus arrived this spring.
On Tuesday, they will find stickers on the floor keeping them socially distanced in line. Plexiglass will separate them from election workers. Voters will receive a pre-packaged stylus or pen to complete their ballot.
Welcome to voting in the age of COVID-19.
Officials and poll workers are cautiously optimistic their efforts will pay off. But uncertainty still lingers.
Some areas that scrambled to recruit poll workers amid coronavirus concerns won't know whether they attracted enough until Election Day. In parts of the Kansas City metro area, the number of polling places has fallen significantly, raising concerns about the stress placed on remaining sites.
Voters who refuse to wear masks could create fear among others.
"It is certainly a risk that we're all taking but I feel pretty OK about it," Eric Skoglund, a Johnson County poll worker, said of his fellow volunteers.
Cindy Prins, an epidemiology professor at the University of Florida, said both Kansas and Missouri seem to be taking precautions to minimize risk as much as possible.
"It looks like there are good plans in place," she said.
Both voters and poll workers wearing masks is key, she said, as is maximizing social distancing while minimizing time spent by voters at polling locations.
"Think about visiting a big box store," she said. "The risk is probably similar to that, as long as the venue is large enough to allow social distancing and there are enough people working to keep everyone moving along and prevent people from piling up."
FEWER POLLING SITES
In Kansas City, the number of polling locations has fallen dramatically since the 2016 August primary.
That year, there were 142 polling locations. This year there are only 50. Jackson County dropped from 181 to 136.
Lauri Ealom, the Kansas City Election Board co-director, said many of the old sites were too small to allow proper social distancing or were no longer available because of the pandemic, such as senior centers.
Yet while there are fewer locations to cast a ballot, the sites are much larger than ever before, Ealom said. The election board reached an agreement with the local school district and city parks and recreation to use gymnasiums and community centers.
There are still two voting sites for every ward, she said, to ensure voters don't have to travel far to cast a ballot. And if a voter doesn't mind forgoing a paper ballot, they will be allowed to cast their vote at any polling location in the city _ not just the one they are assigned to.
"Not only are polling locations bigger, we have more check in tables, we have more voting spaces and we have more ballot marking devices," she said. "We've built barriers with PVC pipe ... We have face shields. We have masks for poll workers and voters. We've got gloves. We've got Lysol. We've got single use pencils and stylus as well."
The number of polling locations in Kansas has remained "relatively stable," said Katie Koupal, a spokeswoman for Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab. This past week, The Star requested a statewide list of polling locations and lists for the 2018 and 2016 election cycles. Schwab's office hadn't provided the information as of Friday.
Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt said Schwab had encouraged local election officials to not reduce the number of polling places, despite the large number of mail-in ballots requested.
"The more locations, the fewer voters in each location, which will protect the voters and the poll workers," Schmidt said.
She said the county will have 167 polling places, down five from 2018. The county pulled out of any locations at facilities for senior citizens, but most of the five lost were churches with daycares, she said.
'WE HOPE THEY WILL WEAR MASKS'
Despite all the precautions election officials are taking, there's no guarantee voters will follow safety guidelines when they arrive at the polls.
Schwab has said voters cannot be forced to wear a mask (or not wear a mask) at polling places, despite orders in place in some counties.
"As always, voters will be allowed to vote whether they follow safe practices or not. We hope they will wear masks and social-distance for the protection of all other voters," Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby said in an email.
Missouri doesn't have a statewide mask order. But many municipalities, including Kansas City, do.
Maura Browning, spokeswoman for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, said "we have faith in our local election officials that no voter will be turned away."
Just how many voters show up on Tuesday is an open question. In Kansas, where no excuse is required to vote by mail, large numbers of voters have requested a mail-in ballot. As of Thursday, about 314,000 advance ballots had been mailed to voters and roughly 139,000 had been returned. By contrast, at this point in 2106, fewer than 24,000 had been returned.
"The lines will look longer for social distancing purposes, but we are anticipating there might be a smaller number of voters who actually turn out on Election Day. We don't quite know yet," Koupal said.
Historically, Missouri voters have needed an excuse to request an absentee ballot. And for most, that ballot had to be notarized.
This year, in response to concerns about in-person voting during the pandemic, Missouri lawmakers voted to allow those in certain high-risk categories _ over 65, living in a long-term care facility, heart or lung issues, compromised immunity, diabetes or kidney disease _ to vote by mail without an excuse or notarization.
Most others are still required to get their ballot notarized if they wish to vote by mail.
The Kansas City Election Board says there have been 10,000 absentee ballot requests for the Aug. 4 election, compared with 2,100 people who voted absentee in the 2016 primary.
The Jackson County Election Board says it had 8,574 absentee ballot requests this year compared with 2,807 for the August 2016 primary.
Statewide, around 206,000 Missourians have either requested to vote by mail or voted absentee in person.
RISK WORTH TAKING
Despite the loss of polling sites, fewer voters on Tuesday could alleviate pressure on poll workers, who are already having to adapt to new procedures spurred by the pandemic. Finding poll workers has long been an issue for election officials in Kansas, but the pandemic exacerbated the challenge.
In Kansas, county election offices are responsible for finding workers. But Schwab since May has been urging teens to volunteer. Older individuals and the elderly are often attracted to serving as poll workers, but are also the most susceptible to serious illness if they contract the coronavirus.
When Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman announced she had cancer in early July, she pleaded with residents to volunteer. At the time, the county was seeking 170 additional poll workers.
"Many of you have asked me how you can help," Lehman wrote on Facebook of her diagnosis. "I am genuinely serious when I say the best tangible thing you can do for me right now is sign up to be or recruit election workers."
In Kansas City, a huge group of longtime volunteers backed out because they were older and at-risk during the pandemic.
But the city council voted in June to give city employees up to two paid days off to work at polling locations for the August primary and this fall's general election.
"Even though we have fewer polls, we have more poll workers at each poll," said Shawn Kieffer, co-director of the Kansas City Election Board. "Currently we have enough workers, about 850, for August, but will need more for November."
Martha Pint, an election judge in Wichita, said Sedgwick County has been open about the struggle to staff polling places. This is Pint's third election as a volunteer, and she said usually election officials find "just enough" volunteers.
"What they shared with us in our training was kind of expect not to be fully staffed. That's the way it is," Pint said.
Election officials have struggled to find volunteers both because traditional methods of recruitment have been hampered by the pandemic and would-be volunteers are concerned for their health.
Pint said she "absolutely" has concerns about serving as an election judge. Any time in public is a risk, she said.
"But is it a risk worth taking?" Pint said. "I believe it is because I believe in voting just that strongly."
