KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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Cass County no-excuse early voters hit the polls with minimum wait times on Tuesday.
"I'll wait as long as it takes," said Lee Brown, a Cass County voter.
Jackson County early voting wait times have hit alarming highs of three-and-a-half hours this week.
The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center reported that in 2018, the population of Jackson County was 700,307; Cass County's population was 104,954, according to the same data.
Cass County ranks in the top in highest populated counties across The Show Me State.
"As of this morning, we had 8,200 voters turn up since the beginning of absentee voting. At about 1:30 p.m., we had about 1,100 come through today," said Jeff Fletcher, the Cass County clerk and election authority. "We had 1,586 yesterday and 1,450 on Friday. It’s been growing every day. I don’t know if we will make it to the 1,500 mark today — it’s been a bit slow."
Fletcher has operated the position of election authority going on six years.
He is the lone candidate for Cass County Associate Commissioner for District 2.
"Probably about December, the central committee will get together and take a vote and let people apply for the position," he said. "At that point, they will take a vote and send that to the governor, and the governor gets to pick that position. We send a recommendation to the committee, but they don’t have to take our recommendation. I am supporting Kathy in my office who has been here for 30 years. She knows how to do this job better than me probably."
KSHB 41 previously reported on how the Jackson County Election Board in need of more election workers, predominately registered Republicans.
Cass County polls operate with four Republican and three Democrat election judges.
"It’s not huge, but it has grown," Fletcher said.
Cass County may not the have the same manpower as Jackson County to operate efficiently, but space continues to be the biggest challenge at the polls.
"We’re in the courthouse, it's crowded, we really probably need to be in a bigger space for more voting booths and room for our judges," Fletcher said. "We have four judges out there at a time. We probably need more space."
Cass County election staff anticipate they will funnel over 10,000 voters through no-excuse early voting by the Nov. 5 General Election.
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