Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, was turned away from voting at his usual polling station after he was told he did not appear on the voter roll, The Kansas City Star reported.
After recording a video encouraging his constituents to vote in Missouri's primary on Tuesday, Lucas discovered that his name at the polling station he has been voting at for more than a decade did not appear in the system. The Black mayor was unable to vote because of the error.
"I made a video this morning about the importance of voting and then got turned away because I wasn't in the system even though I've voted there for 11 years, including for myself four times!," Lucas said on Twitter. "Go figure, but that's okay. We'll be back later today!"
I made a video this morning about the importance of voting and then got turned away because I wasn’t in the system even though I’ve voted there for 11 years, including for myself four times! Go figure, but that’s okay. We’ll be back later today! #Vote
#KCMO
pic.twitter.com/3mYNrO6jmC— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) March 10, 2020
"If the mayor can get turned away, think about everyone else… We gotta do better," Lucas said on Twitter, according to The Hill.
Lucas is currently the 55th mayor of Kansas City and the third African American mayor to be elected in the city. His presence should be obvious to the locals, but Lucas told The New York Times he had to use a utility bill to verify his identity, and even then, it took 10 minutes for a poll worker to official confirm him.
"I was probably a bit frustrated," he told The Times. "The other thing that got in my head was it's a little embarrassing being turned away at the polls."
According to The Times, an election official told Lucas that the confusion came from a poll worker who incorrectly transposed his first and last names in the system.
Voter suppression, specifically for Black people on Super Tuesday, has been a growing concern for Democratic voters seeking to elect a candidate to face President Donald Trump.
During Super Tuesday in Texas, Texan voter Hervis Rogers waited in line for seven hours to cast his vote, as Blavity previously reported. Texas has closed down 750 polling sites, leading to longer lines and wait times at polling stations, as Blavity previously reported.
The Black vote can heavily influence a Democratic nominee. Former Vice President Joe Biden was losing before Super Tuesday, but now he has a commanding lead over his opponents, mainly Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose Black voter turnout is mute compare to Biden's.
