Boy, those lines are long for our waits to vote on this.

Our last show before Election Day, we track the latest campaign issues and trends.

We tell you what you need to look out for on election night.

We reveal the best and worst ads of this long campaign and pick apart the most ignored and neglected issues of election 2024.

Plus, with all the attention on voting, what's the big story we missed in Kansas City?

Week in Review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marley's Gourley.

The Courtney Turner Charitable Trust, Johnny Mize and Bank of America and a co trustees, The Francis Family Foundation through the Discretionary Fund of David and Janice Francis.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

You know, our show before Election Day used to be the easiest one we did.

We just will run through all the races and ballot questions.

But now with so many of you voting early, we've spent the better part of the last month bringing you debates and lifting up the hold on all those ballots questions this week.

It's a balancing act with tasty, fresh insights for those who've already voted, plus for those who have yet to make it to your local polling station, we answer the most pesky questions you've sent us about the election and races where you live now.

Juggling it all effortlessly for us is the Kansas City Star's top political reporter, Jonathan Shulman.

From our metros newest newspaper, next page, KC Eric Wesson on the election beat at the Beacon.

Nationally syndicated columnist Mary Sanchez.

And keeping track of the region's top political stories for Casey Wall News.

Brian Allison now always ready for what is expected to be the largest turnout election in history.

Now, depending on where you live, you may want to pack your patience and a folding lawn chair.

This week, at least one Jackson County polling sites a wait times of more than 4 hours.

Is that a printing error?

Eric, what on earth is going on over there?

It was a lot of people and the process is slow because there's so many questions on the ballot, like it's 12 pages.

Questions.

And they didn't know that before and they couldn't prepare for that.

I let my readers know, and I think information was out there that led people know that this ballot was really long, but I don't think people realized how long it was and how confusing some of the language is.

Is it the number of polling stations?

Is it too few workers?

Mary Simmons The number I mean, this is the early voting.

So, you know, to put it in perspective, on the actual Election Day on Tuesday, there will be so many more sites.

All of this is puzzling for voters on the Kansas side who are getting in and out, apparently.

But there are twice as many voting locations available than there are on the Kansas City Election board and the Jackson County election Board combined.

Right.

Kansas has really had a couple of decades to figure this out.

It's really a cultural difference between the two states with Jackson County and frankly, the rest of Missouri really dipping their toes into this early voting for the first time since the 2020 election.

I think you'll see in future elections, they'll probably move to try to have additional polling locations.

We did hear that some voters said I'm not I'm just not doing it.

Now, whether they come back on Election Day or not.

But should this ring alarm bells about what we might expect on Election Day in the metropolitan area?

I don't know if I would regard it as an alarm bell.

I think the too many people wanting to vote all at the same time is not something we should consider a problem that seems like a healthy sign for democracy.

You know, whoever still in line at 7 p.m. should stay in line because they still get to vote.

But what about other problems?

This week there were concerns that hundreds of mail in ballots had been destroyed in two fires set inside drop boxes.

This is in Washington State and Oregon.

That's an extreme election related problem.

But what about here?

Other than candidate yard signs being stolen, have there been any worrying concerns to report where we live or are we in good shape at this point?

I think we're in pretty good shape so far.

I think the adjustments that the election boards needed to make and remember when President Obama ran the first time, there was a lot of people that voted, but they voted on Election Day because we didn't have the early voting there.

But I think whatever problems that I've heard of, they pretty much solve those problems.

I think everyone's just in this moment now.

We're waiting and very hopeful that nothing occurs.

You know, I will say, though, The Washington Post this week did do a report that spoke to Jay Ashcroft here in Missouri.

The Justice Department has monitors that they tend to send out, you know, on big election days to check ballot access and just to make sure it's a monitoring position.

And in the past 2020, Jay Ashcroft denied the Justice Department monitors access.

This was down in Cole County.

We don't know if they're going to come in.

He seems pretty firm that he would deny them.

That could be something that would be perhaps a glitch.

I don't know that it would necessarily affect voters unless there was something that was going on that needed to be monitored and tamped down.

Now, if you're planning to host an election night party, you probably won't be popping champagne by the end of the evening, at least according to a growing number of political experts who are now advising Americans to be patient.

It could take a while.

And now I get it that the race for the White House is very close.

We may have to wait days for mail in ballots to be counted, but what about around here?

Is there any big race in our state, Jonathan, that is so neck and neck, we may have absolute no clue what the outcome will be for days.

Probably not.

This is hard, though.

We don't usually have one race like that.

Right?

Right.

I think that we aren't expecting certainly we could see surprises.

I don't think we're expecting anything right now, assuming that every election office is able to count ballots on an expeditious basis, which sometimes doesn't always occur, I think we'll know the results of most of your key Kansas and Missouri races probably by midnight.

Now, Brian, you are hosting election coverage again on KC.

What news on election night are you packing a huge case of Costco red ball or are you thinking, oh, you based on what Jonathan is saying, you'll be home at 730?

I don't know if it'll be 730, but I do not expect that it's the Missouri and Kansas races that will be keeping us up late over there.

Yeah, I think it'll be, you know, but 1030, 11:00 Okay.

One place you won't be able to celebrate, though, by the way, for your election night watch party is at Applebee's.

Did you see they closed almost every single one of their stores this week.

So you can be having to find a new location so that now, over the last month on this program, we brought you candidate debates and even went through every single local and statewide question on your ballot.

But we don't want to dislocate our shoulder patting ourselves on the back.

There's so much we haven't touched.

Panelists, I'll fill in the blank question for you.

The most neglected and ignored race this election year has been blank.

Mary, the lieutenant governor race.

And there's all these in underneath the governor, even secretary of state.

I've heard people, you know, not really quite understand just the power of that office.

And it's not so much the lieutenant governor has tended to move into the governorship, but they have an awful lot of power.

I mean, Jay Ashcroft, that's where the issues on the libraries came up.

You know, it is voting rights.

I love that you saying that, because that has been a source of my nagging regret, even though we've done a lot of programs to remember the current lieutenant governor, Mike Keough, is hoping to leverage his position to be the next governor of Missouri.

Remember, Mike Parson was lieutenant governor before he even got the top job.

How come we know so little about the people wanting to be lieutenant governor of Missouri doing this election?

Can you even name the candidates?

Well, we have one singer who is the only Republican seen his hands.

Yeah, right, Right.

And I think part of the issue is in Missouri, a lot of these races are simply not competitive in a serious manner in the general election.

All of this competition happens at the primary stage.

So if, say, you're you're a Democrat, you might not might not pay attention until just about now, because even though all of that drama has played out over the summer and David Watson is the Republican candidate, it is Richard Brown who is a state representative African American from this neck of the woods, who is the Democratic candidate that we've never elected, a African American statewide official in the state of Missouri?

That is correct.

And I think his biggest problem is inability to raise money.

And I you know, I've seen maybe three of his yard signs.

You know, I don't know what chance he has a win in it, But if they come with the Republican sweep, maintaining and state House seats, then he'll have a real serious challenge trying to get.

Okay.

So I mentioned to Mary the most neglected, ignored race.

What was that for you, Brian?

Well, I think there's a couple of local races that we have not paid a lot of attention to up in Platte County.

There's a a quarter cent sales tax on the ballot that would, in a significant way fund youth and children's mental health services.

And of course, in Jackson County, there's a senior services tax levy that that in fact is a is a significant matter that would actually pay for unmet needs for aging in place in the community.

We actually heard a lot of viewers about that who seem to be still puzzled by that, including Richard in Grandview, who says, how much is that going to cost me?

This is this is aging in place.

Services that allow people to stay in their homes.

But, you know, property taxes are high.

How much is that going to cost?

Well, I'm glad you asked, because I think it is confusing that it's calculated on a home's assessed value, which a lot of people don't think about.

They think about the market value of their house.

So the and in fact, I spoke about that a couple of weeks ago on this program.

And I think there was some confusion.

The reality is that for about a $200,000 home, according to the supporters of this measure, the the rate will be $20 or so a year added to your property tax, more expensive homes.

That's where the market value of 200,000.

Thank you for clarifying because had lots of questions about that.

Jonathan Shulman, the most neglected ignored race of this election in non-metro.

I think there has been not enough coverage of the Kansas State Board of Education races we have in the metro running for the metro area, two contested races, districts, two and four.

The State Board of Education doesn't make news a lot, but when it makes news that makes news, big league might with in terms of debates over education.

So I remember it was probably 20 years ago and you probably on the same program when the state Board of Education was torn over the issues like evolution and creation science, they were really getting involved in a huge divisive issues.

Well, and this could be, you know, if it does turn to more of a conservative led board, you may see some of that again, I mean, some of the same players.

It's kind of a national sort of movement.

The anti ID, I the parents need, you know, Bill of rights in schools.

All of that is really nationally led and it does touch into our state politics.

Eric, what did you put down as your most ignored or neglected race?

I think the mayor, of course, the lieutenant governor race.

But I thought that, you know, on the sports betting would have more of an impact that has had there's a lot of fine print things that they didn't cover and it seemed like the yes, it's running away with it.

But I from my paper, I recommended a no vote because there was no guarantee of a net gain.

If they get, you know, $37,000 per school district or the $10 million then was to say that the state doesn't take 10 million from something else and replace it with the sports betting.

So it's not a net gain of 20 million.

But even if they get a little bit, it's still more than they get right now because currently most of those folks in Missouri are going over to Kansas and they're getting absolutely zero for that.

Sports betting, $37,000 per.

All right, all right, all right, All right.

A lot of money.

It might, in fact, be nothing.

And I mean, on the on the ballot, it says 0 to 28 million.

And as Eric says, what's happened with the state lottery is that the money is designated for education.

But it just frees up the legislators to spend the other money on other things.

So I I'm sports betting people can support it or not support it, but they probably shouldn't go into it thinking it's a boon to education.

All right.

Now, if you live in Kansas, you may have seen Governor Laura Kelly in more ads than pretty much any other politician.

And she's not even on the ballot.

She is using her clout and her cash to try to elect Democrats to the state legislature in an effort to end the Republican's veto proof majority.

Jonathan, what difference does that make and what issues would we see that have an impact on?

Well, I think it suggests that Kelly remains a broadly popular governor in Kansas.

She's like you said, she's not on the ballot.

She can't run for reelection.

I think if Republicans lose their super majority status in the in the statehouse or the state Senate, that's going to give her a lot more leverage in terms of when it comes to vetoing bills and knowing that veto is going to stand.

So things like unpopular law or at least to Democrats, unpopular tax cuts won't be possible.

Some of these socially divisive issues probably related to transgender rights and other policies like that, that won't be possible.

So there's a lot at stake here.

And we think about Kansas, one of the few states in the country that has legalized marijuana, one of the few states in the country that hasn't expanded Medicaid.

Those would be issues, too, that would make a difference if Republicans lose their supermajority in this election.

Absolutely.

It would help Laura Kelly with those ideas that she wants to put forward.

And those are two of the big ones.

It would also kind of play into what we're seeing happen in Johnson County with more of a purple line of, you know, more moderate Republicans and it's kind of that whole message that she is tried to play to, that she's kind of that middle of the road, I think was the campaign.

And I say this as ignored issues and neglected issues segment because actually there are so many TV ads just for Kansas House members.

I ran into a former lawmaker who said he didn't need any money, barely any money to run for the House.

Now we're talking about tens, if not $100,000 to run for some of these races.

That's a big change this election season.

Our viewers who have voted early have been surprised by how many judges are on the ballot.

Believe it or not, we probably heard just as much about that, that issue as some of the big races we've been supposed to be deciding.

It would like to know what the judges stand for.

There's never any literature that comes in the mail.

It's difficult for any voter to feel like they have a meaningful voice in who sits on the bench.

All righty.

These are retention elections.

But how do you even know whether a judge is doing a good job?

Well, the Bar association will give you a list of recommendations.

You can research that you can you can go online and read the decisions of these judges.

But for the most part, that's a lot of work.

Well, it is a lot of work.

Very few people do it.

And in fact, across the history of Missouri, unless there's been an organized campaign and even then, only very rarely are any judges ever not retained.

Can you think of anyone who has not been retained?

Well, I'm glad you asked this.

Okay.

All right.

I'm sure everybody at this table knows that in 1992, John R Hutcherson in Clay County was not retained.

He lost by about 1500 votes out of 16,000 cast.

There was an organized campaign against a Supreme Court judge back in 2000 for Richard Title Mahan, who as Phyllis Schlafly, was involved in that campaign.

It was that he was called a liberal, but he won by a sizable margin for the most part.

In Missouri, judges retain their offices because nobody runs again.

This is impressive research, I have to say.

We don't pay our guests anything for appearing on the program.

But I want to say Bryan has earned every penny of that this week for not exercising.

By the way, when we think about judges, you know, we put out a voter guide with our partners in public media, including the Beacon, in case you are news.

We have Kansas and Missouri guys.

You seeing them at coffee shops, We have a digital version and you can see the Casey voter guide or old Casey voter guide dot org.

And I checked and we have all the judges in there too, so you can find out about these judges, little profiles of them on both sides of state line local and appellate statewide judges at the same time.

Now, we're going to move on on this program to our next topic.

It's nearly time to say goodbye to the political ads that have appeared during every commercial break for the past couple of months.

Are you going to miss them?

Panelists to fill in the blank question for you.

The best, most effective campaign ad or campaign strategy we saw this election year was blank.

Eric Wesson I'd like the one where Combs has the blank screen when he talks about what Josh Hawley could talk about and the US Senate race.

And then he has a blank screen for about 2 seconds.

That was kind of funny and that kind of caught my attention.

So that was funny, but not the funny ness around him.

Shooting at Channel 41 Reporter at a shooting range is part of a campaign stunt.

That one.

Wasn't this funny, was it?

No.

And then I was like, was that an accident?

What actually happened to that?

Why was that even news in the first place, the most effective campaign ad or campaign strategy in this election was blank.

Jonathan.

I think Amendment three, that's the overturn the abortion ban in Missouri.

I think they've been very effective in terms of their messaging, especially by copying what Kansas kind of put out a road map of how to do this.

And, you know, it involves kind of libertarian and freedom oriented messaging, which you might not necessarily immediately associate with this topic, but it's proven to be effective in state after state.

And polling shows that Amendment three is likely to pass in Missouri.

Brian, I want to go back to the U.S. Senate race and I want to go all the way back to a year ago when that when Lucas Coons first launched his campaign and had those viral videos online showing a a Josh Hawley lookalike running and running and running, drawing attention to his running away from the riot on January 6th, I don't know that those were the most effective ads changing votes.

Lucas Coons is still trailing in the polls, but I think they were very effective at setting a tone for a campaign and framing that race in the way that Lucas wanted to to run his campaign.

So I think they were very effective and people still talk about those ads.

Okay, I'll complete the sentence then.

The worst campaign ad or campaign strategy we saw this election year was blank.

Jonathan.

Probably Lucas Koontz's photo op at the gun range was probably, but they didn't.

Do you think that cost him votes?

It certainly cost him energy.

I think if you've been on social media, you've seen Josh Hawley is almost made this entirely his closing argument against Coons over the last week.

Yeah I don't know, shooting at the media in Missouri, I'm not sure that costs anyone any votes.

I mean, it maybe that is interesting.

Erik, what did you put down?

Is the worst campaign ad or strategy?

All of it?

Well, not all of them, 90% of them, because they don't get to the issues.

They're doing a lot with personalities, their view, but they're not really addressing the issues that people have.

You hear a lot about immigration.

You hear a lot about closing the borders and those kind of things.

But how much does that affect Missouri that, you know, how does that affect him?

I'm assuming, though, they wouldn't put those in the ads if they didn't think it was rather effective with voters?

Yeah, it does add to their to their base.

It seems like, oh, my goodness, this is what's happening.

But I don't think it's as bad in Missouri as it is in Texas or Arizona or other places.

Campaign ad or strategy, Mary?

Well, I am with Eric.

I mean, the use of immigration occurs in every major election.

It is off the charts this time, and it's not helpful because some of the messaging in it's both parties is just so uninformed, it's so emotional.

It doesn't help people understand real issues at the border.

And then it goes into another layer of actually targeting migrants.

Now, speaking of strategy and campaign priorities, the New York Times had an interesting story this week about how after several elections, which health care was at the forefront, the issue has faded into the background and has been a non-factor in this campaign cycle, at least according to the Times panelist.

What issue are you surprised faded into the background in our local campaigns, even though we were told the stakes were high and it would be a huge priority for voters?

I thought maybe in some of these state legislative races there would be more discussion around the stadium issue in some of these Jackson County, Kansas City area races.

I don't feel like I haven't heard.

I haven't heard a lot of discussion around that.

Even though the state legislature may well play a role in that topic.

Well, housing is another one, you know, and I think it's just a harder fit for some of these campaigns to even explain out how you would help in a significant way.

But it's you know, there's so much just anxiety about the inability to afford starter homes, even the inability to afford all the new construction in apartments.

I don't know how they would have tapped it, but that would have been a really rich vein for emotional voting.

We've been so fixated on election coverage on this program over the last month.

There are a lot of stories that have simply fallen through the cracks, many of them this week.

What was the biggest local story we missed?

We failed to get an NBA or NHL franchise, but Kansas City now pushing hard to land a WNBA team.

Note to self don't be too publicly critical.

Matt Lucas removes the Kansas City Parks Board commissioner after he publicly criticizes a plan to let the Royals take over a public park.

The Crown Center for its new downtown stadium, Salvador Perez becomes the first Royals player to win Major League Baseball's highest humanitarian prize, the Roberto Clemente Award.

If you're one of those who can, Wyandotte County gives the final nod of approval for bringing the first Bucky Storm to town.

It will be located just off I-70 near the speedway and the Legends outlet stores.

They could start moving dirt on the project before the end of the year.

Groundbreaking this week on Kansas City's newest concert venue, The Riverside Amphitheater will see 15,000 people and will be protected from the elements by a 70 foot tall roof.

Greenwich Village becomes the latest area city to ban, be and be the future of the plaza.

Tennis courts back in the spotlight this week is the deadline to come up with new uses for the nearly 100 year old tennis facility.

The city wants a higher use for the land and has proposed moving the 14 courts to city owned property along Brush Creek.

This remarkable October heat wave forces Crown Center to postpone the opening of its 50 year old ice terrace.

The angle will now open next weekend.

Instead, we're marking the scariest day of the year.

Though some Americans may say that title now belongs to Election Day.

All righty.

Mary, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I know you're a huge tennis player.

Come on.

Those tennis courts on the plaza.

Well, then we will discuss the court.

Wow.

The RFP are due on November 1st for the city to asking for proposals.

And there was a meeting recently that was quite well-attended at the Plaza Library where Bryan Platt just begged over and over for people to say to understand that this is very early in the process.

Nothing has been decided yet.

However, people really believe that those courts are going to be gone because the real estate is worth so much.

The new ownership of the plaza want something there?

That was very Officer Altman's Hotels.

Exactly.

So I think how that plays out and how much voice the public really has, it is supposed to be put up to a public vote if Parkland, which that is, is part of Mill Creek Park, would ever be sold.

But there's also the question of could you just lease it out for like some gargantuan number of years, like a 100 year lease and effectively circumvent the people's vote?

Erica, The city of Kansas City, the city council voted to give $300,000 to the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department for a program to help as a deterrent for crime.

They have a $317 million budget.

Why would they take 300,000 that was supposed to be earmarked for grass roots organizations and nonprofits to help fight crime?

Jonathan In Wyandotte County there was a court hearing that got underway this week about the Kansas death penalty, seeking to overturn it.

The ACLU is involved in attempting to kind of show in court get a judge to rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

Kansas hasn't executed anyone in decades.

However, there's a growing number of folks who have death sentences, and so there's maybe a little bit more urgency around this issue.

Brian, I want to take us out to Swedenborg in central Missouri, where the school district needed to name their K through eight school building, and they decided to name it after Claudine Wilson, who served as the custodian of that school for more than 30 years, also took on other tasks like driving the school bus beloved by students, beloved by parents, some of whom started as students when she was a custodian there.

They loved her so much.

They named the school after her, kept it a surprise.

And I love that story.

And it's honoring those people we often ignore and neglect don't give enough attention to.

And finally, somebody's getting the recognition they deserve.

And you can see it outside that school.

I love it.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of the Kansas City stars Jonathan Shulman and Mary Sanchez from The Beacon.

From next page, Casey, Eric Weston and Casey Wall News.

Brian Allison.

Next week we try and figure out what you told us on Election Day and what on earth happens now.

See you then.

I'm Nick Haynes from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well.

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