KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Serious questions linger about whether there will be an Aug. 26 recall election to decide the fate of Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr.
The Jackson County Legislature set the election in motion on Monday.
"The charter says 'shall.' We don't have a choice," Legislature Chairman DaRon McGee said. "We 'shall' have an election within 60 days."
If the final decision is to hold the recall election, it means the Jackson County Election Board will be working furiously to hold two elections in less than a month.
The Kansas City, Missouri, Election Board will not have any issue or candidate ballots to count on Aug. 5, but both election boards still don’t have a critical item needed to hold an election: a ballot.
Shawn Kieffer, the Republican director of elections for the Kansas City, Missouri, election board, said they usually need at least 70 days to prepare for an election.
As of Wednesday, there are 46 days until an Aug. 26 election.
"We usually have a nice four-week period from certification to the time we have to have a ballot ready," Kieffer said. "Now, that's cut within less than a week and we're struggling to come up with polling places."
Sara Zorich serves as the Democratic director for the Jackson County Election Board. She shared the same thought.
"Trying to squeeze all that in a week's time is difficult, especially for 103 polls and 263,000 voters," Zorich said.
Both election authorities are feeling the time crunch. Zorich says the looming recall election is pushing them past their limits.
"Oh, it's chaos," Kieffer said.
Zorich even alluded to taking the matter to a court to ask for more time.
"When there's an election in November, is it possible we can get it pushed to November? That would be ideal," Zorich said.
That sentiment points to an issue Frank White himself brought up, saying the recall election violates a county ordinance. The ordinance says "if no legal election date is available within 60 days, the election will occur at the next available election…"
Four Jackson County residents filed a civil action Wednesday asking a Jackson County judge to direct the election boards to "immediately schedule and begin efforts to hold an election" on August 26.
The lawsuit goes on to ask the judge to issue a Writ of Mandamus and Declaratory Judgment and/or Injunctive Relief to “vindicate the right of the citizens’ petition initiative to call for a recall election of the Jackson County Executive in the face of Respondents obstruction and incorrect application of the law.”
LINK | Read the lawsuit
While the recall question would be the only item on the Aug. 26 ballot, the two election boards have nearly 500,000 registered voters.
The voting machines have not been programmed for the recall ballot.
Polling places still have to be secured.
Kieffer told KSHB 41 the KCEB has 75 polling locations for a presidential election.
The election board would likely try to use about half of those polling locations for an Aug. 26 election.
They also would likely have no-excuse absentee voting in the two weeks before the recall election.
The Kansas City Election Board would try to have four poll sites for early voting.
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