Only about 1 in 5 Wyandotte County voters cast a ballot in Kansas City, Kansas’ mayoral race — deciding the city’s leadership by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Why it matters: Low voter turnout in local off-year elections often affects the races, and ultimately the decisions, that hit closest to home.
Driving the news: Voters (54%) chose Christal Watson as their next mayor, despite lacking the funds and Kansas City Star endorsement of her opponent.
- Watson was the deputy chief of staff to former KCK Mayor David Alvey.
Zoom in: Only 19.57% of eligible Wyandotte County voters went to the polls on Tuesday, according to unofficial final results from the WyCo Election Office.
- That’s on par with the 2021 mayoral race, which had a 19.03% turnout rate, but less than neighboring Johnson County’s about 24.39% turnout this year.
Zoom out: Wyandotte County saw more than double this year’s turnout for the 2024 general election (54.1%), which was still low in comparison to Kansas as a whole (70.7%)…