When to go to the polls
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Voters looking to skip a line in Tuesday's Kansas and Missouri primaries have a narrow opening: the early afternoon.
Why it matters: Voting is your civic duty, but doing it on a workday means finding time between the office, errands and a line you can't predict.
By the numbers: Nationally, the heaviest crowds come first thing.
- The Bipartisan Policy Center and MIT tracked lines at more than 3,000 polling places across 11 states, having poll workers count how many people were waiting at the top of every hour.
- Voters who showed up at opening found nearly three times as many people ahead of them as those who came later in the day.
Axios asked all counties in the metro when voters can expect to see lines at the polls. Here's who got back to us.
Morning
Lafayette County's first rush runs 6am–8am, the county clerk's office tells Axios.
- Cass County sees the same.
Midday
Cass and Lafayette both fill up from 11am–1pm.
- Jackson County outside Kansas City saw traffic rise from around 9am until about noon in April's municipal election, according to its election board.
Early afternoon
This is the gap. Every rush the counties identified fell before 1pm or after 3:30pm.
Evening
Lafayette and Cass get busy again from 5pm–7pm. Jackson's traffic climbed starting at 3:30pm and hit its high at 5pm.
My thought bubble: I'm voting at 2pm because I work from home, which means it will also be the only time all week I leave the house on purpose.
What's next: Polls are open 6am–7pm in Missouri and 7am–7pm in Kansas.
- Just make sure you're in line by 7pm.