By Damon Grosvenor
Landmark reporter
Tuesday’s elections did not go well for some Platte County Republicans.
Local voters elected Democrat Mary McKenna over Republican Jason Maki for presiding commissioner by a margin of more than 3,800 votes. Independent presiding commissioner candidate Dale Brouk came in third, receiving 7.2% of the vote.
“I am thrilled beyond belief,” McKenna told The Landmark in a brief interview on Tuesday night. “I can go home now and maybe get some sleep.”
She said she is the first Democrat to be elected to the position in 36 years.
Maki congratulated McKenna and the other winners.
“Congratulations to McKenna and the Democrats. They ran a great campaign,” he said. “And I guess Platte County wants to become a blue county.”
Several other Republicans also lost, including Jim Bosch, who was defeated by Holly Cayer, an independent, by nearly 3,000 votes. Maki and Bosch sued the current collector, also a Republican, over her handling of property tax credits. Bosch later removed himself from the lawsuit, although Maki is continuing it.
Parkville residents also rejected three new property tax levies. Voters turned down Propositions P, I and F by wide margins. Little more than a third of voters supported Propositions P and F, while only 42% supported Proposition I.
Mayor Dean Katerndahl, along with official city social media and email accounts made several last-minute pitches to voters on Monday, arguing the city needed the extra funding for improving police pay (P), improving city infrastructure (I) and maintaining city facilities (F).
High Turnout
More voters than usual participated in this year’s general election in Platte County, with 61.6% of registered voters participating Tuesday. Total turnout exceeded 45,000. That is a few thousand more ballots than were cast in the last mid-term election in 2022.
And many of them were greeted by Brouk outside the polling station located at the Thousand Oaks Oasis Pool & Club in Parkville.
“I am just here saying hello to my neighbors,” he said while sitting on a lawn chair and wearing a campaign shirt.
Just a few feet from him, a chalk line on the sidewalk marked the 25-foot boundary within which electioneering is prohibited.
Election officials inside declined to answer The Landmark’s questions about electioneering near the entrance.
“We send a cord that is 25 feet and some chalk to each poll site to help our poll workers accurately mark where electioneering may and may not take place,” said Chris Hershey, co-director of the Platte County Board of Elections, in an email to The Landmark.
Brouk said he had been outside the polling location since 6:50 a.m. and was ensuring he stayed on the right side of the chalk line.
Even before in-person voting began at 6 a.m., officials with the Platte County Board of Elections told The Landmark more than 14,500 no-excuse absentee ballots had been cast.
At another polling location, more than 350 people had cast their vote by 9:45 a.m.
“We have had to add seats and people are still standing while waiting for their turn to vote,” said Nikki Pittman, an election volunteer stationed at Riverstone Retirement Community on Congress Avenue.
Voters were lined up at standard voting booths while others were sitting at tables filling out their ballots behind privacy shields.
Linda Arnold, another election official, said she had seen significantly more voters on Tuesday than in other non-presidential elections.
The Bigger Picture
Tuesday’s voting was part of the nationwide midterm elections and included several high-profile state ballot measures.
These included Amendment 3, a Republican attempt to repeal and replace the Missouri Constitution’s abortion protections narrowly passed by voters in 2024, and a referendum on Gov. Mike Kehoe’s Missouri First Map, which would have redrawn the state’s congressional districts.
Two-thirds of Platte County voters rejected Amendment 3 and the Missouri First congressional map.
Statewide results were not complete by press time.
Abortion was a key issue for Ingelore Smith as she headed to the polls Tuesday.
“We do not need abortion except for rape and incest,” said Smith, 87.
She and her husband, Dale, 85, both voted in favor of Amendment 3, and Smith said she voted Republican down the ballot. The two live in Riverstone Retirement Community.
“We do not need socialists or communists,” she said, referring to Democrats. “I would know, I came from it.”
Smith said she was born in East Germany and moved to the U.S. after marrying her husband in the 1960s. She later became a U.S. citizen.
“The country is going too far left,” her husband Dale said. “I used to be an independent, but not anymore.”
Another younger voter said Amendment 3 was the primary reason he voted.
“I wanted to overturn abortion,” said Martin Roberson, 22.
Roberson identified as an abolitionist, a Christian movement that is against any kind of abortion.
However, he said he was not invested in the rest of the ballot.
For others, there was no one subject that drove them to the polls.
“I always want to vote,” said Reta Smith, 88, another resident of Riverstone. “I do not want to lose my voice.”
She said she was happy to see the number of people showing up to the polls.
Kansas City resident Clay Jackson, 42, said he normally came out to vote for midterm elections.
“It is time to vote,” he said. “I have gotten much more active the older I get.”
He said he knew one of the candidates on the ballot, Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Hardwick, and he wanted to come out and support her. Voters agreed that Hardwick should remain in her position.
