The lack of fans in the stands this week at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, is expected to have a significant impact on the local and state economy.
Fans were not allowed at the Kansas Speedway this week, including the NASCAR Cup Series race on Thursday night, to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
A 2008 study estimated the Kansas Speedway produced a $243 million effect on the local economy, creating an estimated 5,000 jobs. A 2010 news release from the Unified Government estimated one race weekend had a $100 million economic impact on the Kansas City metro area.
Bridgette Jobe, Kansas director of tourism, said that not having fans attending races at the Speedway has an effect on the local and state economy. There are still some positives in the situation, however, she said.
“Hotels, restaurants, shopping venues in the Kansas City region all benefit from the thousands of fans who arrive in Kansas City, Kansas, for a race weekend,” Jobe said. “Communities from across the state will also be negatively impacted as travelers will not be stopping in their communities as they are driving to and from the races.
“The positive is that we still have the race teams in Kansas City, Kansas, staying in our hotels and enjoying the KCK amenities,” Jobe said.
Kansas Tourism completely supports NASCAR and Kansas Speedway in their efforts to keep Kansans and visitors safe, she added.
“And I know that the tourism industry will recover from this pandemic,” Jobe said. “We are seeing signs of travel returning, but it will look at little different in the near future.”
Travelers are staying closer to home and looking for wide-open space where they can physically distance, she said.
“I encourage all visitors to travel safely and responsibly and look forward to welcoming race fans to Kansas in the future,” Jobe said.
Greg Kindle, president of the Wyandotte Economic Development Council, said the Kansas Speedway is one of the primary importers of tourism into the Kansas City metro area every year, bringing in about $250 million every year, and having a large effect on hotels and restaurants.
Others affected in Wyandotte County include Sporting KC, which also has not been able to play games here with fans.
The racetrack brings in the lion’s share of folks from outside the region, Kindle said. It’s the one sports event in the metropolitan area that nets out far more people who don’t live here than do.
It would be almost impossible to replace the lost revenue from the Speedway not having fans, he added.
Besides tourism, retail sales are another area that has seen a decline. The Unified Government stated during the recent budget meetings that they were seeing a decline in retail sales tax revenues.
Kindle said it is fortunate that, although some sectors are seeing a decline, they are continuing to see an interest in ecommerce. Property taxes are still coming in, and some areas may continue to provide jobs for those who have been in the service economy.
“We have over 5,000 jobs available in Wyandotte County today, despite the pandemic,” Kindle said. “It’s fortunate that we are a diverse economy.”
While there has been a big hit to the economy, there also is a diverse mixture of commerce to help withstand the pandemic.
A young election worker went through training last weekend at the Wyandotte County Election Office. (Submitted photo)
This year’s elections are getting a boost from young election workers.
With some of the regular election workers unable to be at the polls Aug. 4 because of COVID-19, an effort has been made to recruit high school students and young adults.
Sheyvette Dinkens, a business educator at Wyandotte High School, said she recently brought about 10 students to election worker training.
This past weekend, Dinkens went with students from Wyandotte High School and Sumner Academy to the training session at the Wyandotte County election office. Students who are over 16 may work at the polls. More training sessions are expected to take place.
Students learned about checking voters in, provisional ballots and other topics, she said. Many of the students are bilingual and will be able to help with translations, she added.
The students also learned about the rules for primaries, such as registered Republicans can only vote the Republican ballot, and registered Democrats can only vote the Democratic ballot. In the general election, voters can vote for any candidate.
Some of the students don’t know much about elections, having not voted before, Dinkens added. This is an educational experience for them, she said. They will be under the supervision of an experienced supervising election judge at the polls, she added. The students receive $9.01 per hour for working at the polls.
Dinkens said students at the training were provided with general government education on elections and how they work. She said she believes it’s important for students to support the local community, and the experience will be good for them.
During training, they talked about how many election locations have closed because of COVID-19, and also about how people are using physical spacing at the polling places, she said.
“The election office has taken precautions, they have the spacing and partitions up,” Dinkens said. They also will have markers on the floor showing people where to stand to be safely spaced apart.
Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby said youth have been eligible to work at the elections for some time, and this year the election office has been more aggressively recruiting young election workers.
Since many election workers here are over the age of 72, many of them are dropping out of working at this year’s election because they don’t want to take the risk of getting COVID-19, Newby said. That creates vacancies that the election office has to fill, he added.
The election office here desperately needs election workers and especially younger election workers, he said. It’s not too late to call the election office and ask to be an election worker, he added. If necessary, they will train election workers all the way up to the day before election, he said.
Holding an election this year has been a different experience.
“It’s a challenge,” Newby said. “This year was going to be difficult enough without the COVID-19 thing overlaying everything. We’re doing everything we can.”
They’re trying to keep the election as normal as possible, he said, with the exception that they have pushed voting by mail very hard. All of the voting options will still be available.
There has been some pushback from some people who think others will try to steal the election if it’s a mail-in ballot, but procedures are in place to keep that from happening, Newby said. There are laws in place that make it a felony offense to interfere with elections and change votes, he added.
Mail ballots still available
Wyandotte County, as a lot of other places in Kansas, has been encouraging voters to use mail-in ballots to keep the risk down of people spreading COVID-19. The state has allowed mail ballots for many years.
So far, they’re over 10,000 applications for a mail ballot. This week, the Wyandotte County election office sent out 9,728 ballots, Newby said. They have 600 pending to send out and there will be more when they check the mail on Saturday, he added.
“It’s not too late to apply to vote by mail,” Newby said. The deadline to apply to vote by mail is Tuesday, July 28, one week before Election Day, he said. “Voters still have time if they want to protect themselves,” he said.
He added the best way for voters to protect themselves is to vote by mail.
Newby said as soon as they get an application, they process it and try to get the ballot out the same day or a day or two later. Voters need to plan to get the ballots back to the election office. It might take two to three days in the mail to get there.
If voters return the ballot by mail, it has to be postmarked by Election Day and received by the Friday after Election Day, according to the state law, he said. If the postmark says the day after Election Day, it isn’t counted.
Also, a voter can return the ballot in person to the Election Office or to any polling place on Election Day, during the hours the polls are in operation, he said.
Besides polls being open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., there will be early voting dates as usual at three election centers, one at the Election Office at 850 State, one at the Joe Amayo-Argentine Community Center at 2810 Metropolitan Ave., and one at the Eisenhower Recreation Center, 2901 N. 72nd St.
Those who go to the polls in person may have to wait in line and will social distance, he said. At this time, he doesn’t know how long it will take to wait in line, he added.
To mask or not to mask?
The election workers all will be wearing masks provided by the election office, he said. While there is a mandatory mask order in effect in public places from the Wyandotte County Health Department, and while he hopes everyone wears a mask, Newby said he could not enforce it at the polls, and could not make voters wear a mask.
“The Wyandotte County election office and none of the election workers are in the business of enforcing the mask requirement,” Newby said. “Voter eligibility is determined by whether the person is a resident, registered to vote and 18 or over. That’s it. There’s no requirement in the law that says they have to wear a mask.”
Newby said he hopes all the voters comply with the Health Department policy, and protect everyone. But the only ones he can protect and require to wear a mask are his election workers, he added.
On Friday, a news release from Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab stated that a memo has been sent from his office to county election officials advising them not to turn away any individual who is otherwise qualified to vote, for wearing or not wearing a mask. Schwab’s memo cited the Kansas Constitution’s statement that the only three criteria to vote in Kansas were age, citizenship and residence. If the voter is properly registered, state law says the person shall be allowed to cast a vote, according to Schwab’s memo.
Schwab’s news release stated that voter intimidation or voter suppression based on the fact that a voter is or is not wearing a mask will not be tolerated and is subject to litigation.
If election workers want to wear gloves, gloves will be provided for them, Newby said. Hand sanitizer cannot be used because it might interfere with the paper, and the voting machines may not count the votes, he said. Each polling place will have a restroom where workers and voters may wash their hands, he added.
Newby said there will be supplies provided at the polls for voting machines and surfaces to be wiped down between voters. There are special wipes for the voting machines that will not damage them, he added.
Each voter will receive a two-ended pen, he said. On one end, there will be a stylus, and on the other end, a ballpoint. With the stylus they will sign the pad, and with the ink side, they can sign and fill out the ballot. The voters will get to keep the pen, he said, as the election office doesn’t want people to share pens and potentially spread the coronavirus.
Advance voting at three election centers
Wyandotte County will continue to offer advance voting available in person at three election centers.
Election Office, 850 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 21-24; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 25; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 27 to July 31; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1; 8 a.m. to noon Monday, Aug. 3.
Joe Amayo-Argentine Community Center, 2810 Metropolitan Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 25; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 27 to July 31; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.
Eisenhower Recreation Center, 2901 N. 72nd St., Kansas City, Kansas, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 25; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 27 to July 31; 10 .a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.
In-person voting on Election Day
Voters may vote at their assigned polling places on Election Day, Aug. 4, and three of those places have changed.
Newby said they have reduced the number of polling places on Election Day by three by consolidating them with other nearby polling places. The three consolidated were the three smallest in the county, he added, with 200 to 300 voters affected. Those voters, if they vote in person, will go a few blocks down the street to their new polling place.
Polling places open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 4, Election Day, include:
The Piper school district has a second case of COVID-19 among student athletes, and will suspend all sports and conditioning from Wednesday, July 15, through July 29.
The school district reported in a social media post on Tuesday evening that a second school athlete had tested positive.
Jenny Hurley, director of human resources and communications for the district, said at this point, it will not affect any plans for the school district to reopen.
The district is hoping to resume athletic activities on July 30, she said.
The Piper district did not have any further information about what team was involved, or the source of the COVID-19 case.
The school district’s message to parents encouraged them to talk to students about hand washing, following mask guidelines, social distancing and staying home if they are sick.
The Unified Government Health Department announced an amendment to the mask order on Tuesday evening, that requires athletes using inside gyms or training facilities to wear masks.
A Health Department spokesman stated that this order was not linked to any specific instances, but it was issued largely based on confusion around the mask requiresments and the spread of COVID-19. Also, another amendment calls for children over age 5 to wear masks in child ccare, day care and schools.
“We have received many questions related to things like masks during indoor exercise. There was also some confusion related to people hearing different childcare guidelines from different places,” the Health Department spokesman stated.
Based on their analysis of current COVID-19 data, the county medical officers determined this was the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in indoor exercise and child care settings, she stated.
