TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters will decide whether they want to alter the balance of power in the Legislature and replace two Republican congressmen in Tuesday’s primary election.

The GOP and the Democratic Party are picking their nominees for the U.S. Senate, congressional seats, the Kansas Senate, the Kansas House and hundreds of county offices.

Moderate Republicans are hoping to knock off conservative legislators in GOP contests, and U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp is facing a tough challenge from Roger Marshall, a Great Bend obstetrician, in the big 1st Congressional District of western and central Kansas.

What to know about the election:

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KEY RACES

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran is seeking a second, six-year term and is expected to win easily over a largely unknown opponent, D.J. Smith, of Osawatomie, in the GOP primary.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder also is expected to score a big victory over his Republican primary opponent, retired Army officer Greg Goode, of Louisburg, in the Kansas City-area 3rd District.

The biggest race is Huelskamp’s contest against Marshall. The incumbent is a tea party favorite who first won the seat in 2010, but his conflicts with GOP leaders turned agriculture and business groups against him.

More than two dozen Republican legislators, most of them conservative allies of GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, face primary challengers. Three House Democrats also do, in relatively safe Democratic districts.

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POLLING HOURS

All polling places across the state must open at 7 a.m., though local election officials have the authority to allow voting to begin at 6 a.m.

Polling closes at 7 p.m. local time. Four counties on the state’s border with Colorado — Greeley, Hamilton, Sherman and Wallace — are on Mountain time, an hour earlier than the rest of the state.

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WHO CAN VOTE

Kansas recognizes only three political parties, Republican, Democratic and Libertarian. Libertarians do not appear on the primary ballot because they choose their candidates at a state convention.

People who affiliate with one party when they register to vote can’t vote in another party’s primary. But voters who register as unaffiliated can declare an affiliation at the polls and vote in a Republican or Democratic primary.

Also, under a 2011 state law, voters must show a photo ID at the polls.

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PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP

Election officials will be required to count potentially thousands of votes in legislative and local races even though the people casting them didn’t comply with a 2013 state law requiring them to document their U.S. citizenship when registering.

A federal judge ruled in May that people who registered at motor vehicle offices without providing proof of their citizenship still had the right to cast ballots in federal races under federal law.

The federal judge’s ruling prompted Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who has championed the proof-of-citizenship law, to direct county election officials to set their ballots aside for later review and count only their votes in federal races.

But the American Civil Liberties Union filed a state-court lawsuit challenging Kobach’s rule, and a Shawnee County District Court judge ruled Friday that all votes on such ballots must be counted. Ahead of Tuesday’s primary, about 17,600 people registered at motor vehicle offices without providing proof of their U.S. citizenship.

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TURNOUT

Kobach predicted Monday that 24 percent of the state’s 1.75 million registered voters will cast ballots in the primary.

That’s slightly higher than the 23.2 percent turnout in 2012, the last year there was a presidential election.

Kobach said he expects 410,000 ballots to be cast and that county election officials already have received about 70,000 advance ballots.

He said while there are hotly contested races that will boost turnout in some areas, there’s no statewide contest resulting in aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts.

OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says five people have died in a fiery crash that forced the closure of Interstate 80 in western Nebraska for several hours.

Spokeswoman Deb Collins says several vehicles were involved in the crash that happened around 11:30 a.m. Mountain time near Brule in Keith County.

The pileup began when a semitrailer truck struck the back of a van in the westbound lanes of the Interstate. Collins says at least two other vehicles were involved, and one of the vehicles caught fire.

Five people died in the crash, but they weren’t immediately identified. Additional people were hurt, but the State Patrol didn’t provide details of how many or the extent of their injuries.

Traffic was being diverted off I-80 between Oshkosh and Ogallala on Sunday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Figures from a survey of supply managers in nine Midwest and Plains states have dropped again and suggest slow or no economic growth ahead.

A report issued Monday says the Mid-American Business Conditions index fell to 47.6 last month from 50.1 in June.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says global economic uncertainty, including Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, was a significant concern for many of the supply managers in the survey.

The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests economic growth. A score below that suggests decline. The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

 

EMINENCE, Mo. (AP) — A 440-acre swath of southern Missouri that once included an outdoor music venue is the newest state park.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Echo Bluff State Park in Shannon County features trails, caves and streams.

About 330 acres of the property once had been called Camp Zoe. Law enforcement officers raided the camp in 2010 because of outdoor drug sales, and owner Jimmy Tebeau forfeited the camp to the U.S. government and went to prison.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources bought the land at auction and added 100 acres. Tens of millions of dollars later went into building a lodge, playground, campgrounds, pavilions and two-bedroom cabins.

Gov. Jay Nixon calls Echo Bluff a centerpiece to the region’s tourism.

LOCKHART, Texas (AP) — Police say the pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed in Texas and killed all 16 people aboard had been arrested in Missouri for driving while intoxicated in 2000.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in 2008 that the Better Business Bureau there had warned consumers about doing business with Alfred “Skip” Nichols after complaints about his balloon touring company.

Forty-nine-year-old Nichols was identified as the pilot of the Texas balloon by his friend and roommate Alan Lirette, who said that Nichols was a good pilot.

Federal investigators say the balloon hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture early Saturday morning. One witness who lives a quarter-mile from the site reported a fireball going up.

Investigators are focusing on interviewing witnesses, starting Monday with the ground crew.

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas county has dedicated a new memorial that honors the homeless people who died there.

The memorial along the Osage Nature Trail was dedicated recently to remember homeless and indigent people who died in Harvey County and whose remains were never claimed. The county has buried their ashes at the site.

The memorial includes a large engraved stone on a concrete pedestal, with concrete benches on either side.

Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton told The Hutchinson News that when someone dies and no one claims their remains, the county has the remains cremated. It had been storing the remains with his department’s archives.

Walton found that inappropriate, so he got to work developing the memorial, which was paid for without public money.

HAYS, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in western Kansas are investigating after a man apparently suffered fatal injuries in a fight.

The Hays Police Department says it received a report of a possible disturbance late Saturday and when officers arrived they found an unresponsive male who appeared to have been involved in a fight.

Hays Post reports that the man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The victim has been identified as 33-year-old Timothy Isaiah Walker, a Hays resident.

Derrick Allen Smith, 25, was arrested at the scene.

Police say the investigation is ongoing.

DETROIT (AP) — Combi USA is recalling more than 39,000 car seats because they can transmit too much force to a child’s chest in a crash.

The recall covers certain Coccoro Convertible Child Restraints with a model number of 8220. They were manufactured from Jan. 1, 2009 to June 29, 2016.

Government documents say the problem happens when the seats are installed in a forward-facing position and secured only with a vehicle lap belt.

The problem was discovered in government tests. Combi says in the documents that there is little to no risk in real-world crashes. It has no reports of injuries.

Combi will notify owners and send them a cover for the bottom of the seat that reduces the force on children’s chests. Distribution of the covers started on July 11.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The mother of a 24-year-old man fatally shot by Kansas City police in 2013 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners and the officer who shot her son.

The Kansas City Star reports that Narene Stokes-James filed the lawsuit on Thursday. Her son, Ryan Stokes, was shot and killed by a police officer at the end of a foot chase in downtown Kansas City.

Police say Stokes, a black man, had a gun and did not obey commands to show his hands. Stokes’ family disputes that he had a gun and say he might not have heard the commands.

The police officer was not indicted in the shooting.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

WINONA, Mo. (AP) — A southern Missouri man has been convicted of killing his wife by giving her Kool-Aid laced with prescription drugs.

The Missouri attorney general’s office says in a news release that jurors found 37-year-old Jason McClurg, of Winona, guilty Thursday of first-degree murder in the May 2014 death of 32-year-old Stephanie McClurg.

Court records show he looked up overdose information online and that his first effort to poison her didn’t word, so he tried again.

He also was convicted of escaping from the Shannon County jail in Eminence after his arrest. The escape happened when he and other inmates were taken outside to watch a Fourth of July fireworks show. He was captured a couple days later at a camper trailer near his hometown.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 13.