Thousands of Missouri voters in Kansas City and Jackson County spent their Saturday casting an absentee ballot for the upcoming election.
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Voters on the Missouri side showed up before daybreak, so they could be absent at the polls on Tuesday.
McKenzie Bennett is a student at Northwest Missouri State University. She decided to vote early.
"I'm not going to be here on Tuesday, so I wanted to make sure I voted today," said Bennett.
Poll workers are already processing absentee ballots in Kansas City. More than 1,000 will be on hand to assist voters on Tuesday.
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Shawn Kieffer with the Kansas City Election Board says they already have nearly 20,000 absentee ballots.
They could start running absentee ballots through the counting machines as early as Sunday.
"It's a long ballot, 18-inch ballot front and back. You need to be prepared. That's the big thing we're pushing this election," said Kieffer.
He also said they're encouraging voters to take a look at a sample ballot online before heading to the polls.
Polls open at 6 a.m. and will remain open until 7 p.m.
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Lisa Benson can be reached at lisa.benson@kshb.com.
