CHICAGO (AP) — Immigration and health care were the most important issues for Kansas voters casting midterm election ballots, according to a wide-ranging survey of the American electorate.

As voters cast ballots for governor and members of Congress in Tuesday’s elections, AP VoteCast found that nearly half of Kansas voters said the country is on the right track, while half said the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Here’s a snapshot of who voted and why in Kansas, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, an innovative nationwide survey of about 135,000 voters and nonvoters — including 3,786 voters and 755 nonvoters in the state of Kansas — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

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TOP ISSUES

About a quarter of Kansas voters considered health care to be the most important issue influencing their vote while another quarter named immigration as the top issue.

Margaret Masilionis, an 84-year-old state worker and self-described “proud Democrat,” said President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigration is wrong.

“We all came from immigrants, Masilionis said. “I don’t understand how we can exclude people and go to bed at night feeling that we’re fair Americans.”

But Keith Noe, a 79-year-old semi-retired farmer who lives outside the small town of Lecompton, said he wanted to see the border wall built, adding that his views were shaped by living near the Mexican border in California in the 1990s.

“The farmers down there had to shut down their dairies down there because of illegal aliens c

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A former employee of a suburban Kansas City youth mental health facility has been placed on probation for sex charges.

27-year-old Dijon Willis will have to serve 30 days in jail as a condition of probation. He also was ordered Monday to undergo sex offender treatment and be placed on the state’s sex offender registry for 25 years.

Willis pleaded no contest in August and was found guilty of indecent liberties with a child and attempted sexual exploitation of a child. The charges stemmed from incidents in 2013 and 2014, when Willis worked at KidsTLC in Olathe.

Several residents, both current and former, alleged that Willis touched them inappropriately.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh seems open to the arguments of a Missouri inmate in Kavanaugh’s first death penalty case. The new justice could hold the key to the outcome.

The high court heard arguments Tuesday over inmate Russell Bucklew’s claim that his rare medical condition could result in severe pain during lethal injection.

Kavanaugh is seemingly the tie-breaking vote in Bucklew’s case. That’s because his eight colleagues split 4 to 4 in January over whether to allow Bucklew’s execution to proceed. Justice Anthony Kennedy provided the fifth vote to spare Bucklew. Kavanaugh replaced Kennedy, who retired in July.

Bucklew says a tumor in his throat is likely to rupture and bleed in a lethal injection execution.

He is on death row for a 1996 murder.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on the midterm election in Missouri (all times local):

Marian Velder, a 59-year-old woman from Liberty, Missouri, voted for Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley because she is “done” with Democrats.

“I have had it up to here,” said Velder, while putting her hand above her head. “I am never voting for a Democrat again.”

Velder said she once voted for Democrats but President Donald Trump has her eyes to an “undercurrent of liberalism” across the country. She said Democrats no longer stand for the idealism she believed in past decades.

Nicholas Bowers, of Liberty, said he voted for Democrat U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in part because he was disappointed with how Hawley conducted himself since being elected state attorney general in 2016.

Bowers, 28, a worker for Ford Motor Co., said he was upset with the attorney general’s support of a right-to-work law and his “ridiculous” investigation into former Gov. Eric Greitens,’ who faced several scandals before he resigned in June.

12:20 p.m.

Voters are experiencing some problems as they cast their ballots in Missouri.

The Kansas City Star reports that the power was out when voters arrived Tuesday at the Coves Clubhouse in northern Kansas City. Platte County Board of Elections director Wendy Flanigan says voters were able to continue voting during the outage. The ballots were submitted to an emergency compartment so they could be feed back into the reader when power was restored.

Clay County Board of Election Commissioners director Patty Lamb says there have been issues with some voter machines not working properly, but they have addressed the issue and everything was fixed.

In Jackson County, a ballot counter at the Lee’s Summit City Hall was down for about 20 minutes before a different machine was brought in.

11:50 a.m.

Turnout appears strong as voters cast ballots in a tight race that will determine whether incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill can withstand a challenge from Republican Josh Hawley.

In south St. Louis, 37-year-old Amanda Cline waited almost an hour for a ballot. She told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it “almost feels like a presidential election.” She says its “good to see a lot of people.”

Outside Rock Bridge Christian Church in Columbia, the line began forming before the doors opened. Poll volunteer Lisa Glass told the Columbia Missourian that it is the most voters she has ever seen.

Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller described the lines as steady. The Springfield News-Leader reports that by 10 a.m. Tuesday, 12 percent of all active voters in the county had cast their ballots.

6:15 a.m.

Polls have opened in Missouri as voters cast ballots to decide whether to send Democrat Claire McCaskill back to the senate and approve ballot measures that would raise the minimum wage and allow medical marijuana.

McCaskill is running against Josh Hawley, the young challenger backed by President Donald Trump. Hawley, the 38-year-old, Ivy-league educated state attorney general, says the 65-year-old McCaskill is too liberal for Missouri. Trump won the state by 19 points in 2016.

McCaskill campaigned as a moderate and focused on health care issues. Republicans badly want to defeat McCaskill after she survived in 2012 when her opponent made a major gaffe.

Missouri voters also will face ballot measures Tuesday to raise the gas tax and a major change to drawing district boundaries after the 2020 census.

10:03 p.m.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has survived near-political death before in the red state of Missouri.

Voters on Tuesday will decide whether to re-elect her over Josh Hawley, the young challenger backed by President Donald Trump.

Hawley, the 38-year-old, Ivy-league educated state attorney general, says the 65-year-old McCaskill is too liberal for Missouri. Trump won the state by 19 points in 2016.

McCaskill campaigned as a moderate and focused on health care issues.

Republicans badly want to defeat McCaskill after she survived in 2012 when her opponent made a major gaffe.

Missouri voters also will face several ballot measures including three separate proposals for medical marijuana, a measure to raise the minimum wage, one to raise the gas tax and a major change to drawing district boundaries after the 2020 census.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Springfield high school student is facing charges for allegations he sexually assaulted two girls in stairwells at two different schools.

17-year-old Marquies Thomas was charged on Sunday with multiple counts of sodomy and sexual abuse. He’s being held in Greene County Jail on $30,000 bond.

A probable cause statement says a female student reported to police on Friday that Thomas groped and forced himself on her in a stairwell at Central High School. Court documents say another student witnessed part of the encounter.

Court records describe a similar incident in June 2017 involving Thomas forcing himself on a girl in a stairwell. The school’s name has been redacted from documents obtained by the newspaper.

No attorney is listed for Thomas in online court records.

Missouri automatically tries 17-year-olds as adults.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – Two members of a now-shuttered fraternity at the University of Missouri have been sentenced to five years of probation for breaking one student’s jaw and knocking out another’s tooth.

Nikolas Childress, 21, Forest Park, Illinois, and Zachary Barabasz, 21, Columbia, were sentenced Monday for charges of third and fourth-degree assault.

The two victims, freshmen Sean Freihaut and Benjamin Poss, alleged in a lawsuit that Childress and Barabasz were freshmen pledges living in the Sigma Phi Epsilon at the time of the September 2017 attack. The suit says it was required as part of a hazing ritual.

The national Sigma Phi Epsilon organization subsequently closed the Columbia chapter. The chapter has denied responsibility and argued against allowing punitive damages to be awarded.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the midterm election in Kansas (all times local):

Republican Kansas Secretary of Kris Kobach says voter turnout appears to be heavy.

Kobach talked to reporters Tuesday in Lecompton as he cast his own ballot for governor. He is running for the seat against Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly. She is wooing GOP moderates who are put off by Kobach’s hardline stances on issues such as immigration, while Kobach expects his conservative base to turn out to counter enthusiasm on the left.

Voters today at Central Resource Library #GoVote @jocogov pic.twitter.com/J4nIfaCg35

— Johnson Co. Library (@jocolibrary) November 6, 2018

A wild card is Independent candidate Greg Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, who Democrats fear could take enough votes to hand the election to Kobach.

Lines have been reported in locations that include Salina.

Kansas Democrats are also hoping to flip two GOP held U.S. House seats in the eastern part of the state.

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7:05 a.m.

Voters have started casting ballots in Kansas’ closely watched governor’s race and in two hotly contested U.S. House seats.

The race for governor between Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly was a toss-up in the campaign’s final weekend. Kelly is wooing GOP moderates who are put off by Kobach’s hardline stances on issues such as immigration, while Kobach expects his conservative base to turn out to counter enthusiasm on the left. A wild card is Independent candidate Greg Orman.

An honor to vote for myself for Governor of Kansas. I love Kansas and being able to serve my fellow Kansans as governor would be the honor of my life. #ksleg #ksgov #VoteToday #ElectionDay #RemainRed #TeamKobach pic.twitter.com/wKgn4nYQI1

— Kris W. Kobach (@KrisKobach1787) November 6, 2018

In eastern Kansas, incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder is facing a formidable challenge from Democratic newcomer Sharice Davids, who would be the nation’s first LGBT Native American in Congress. And Republican Steve Watkins and Democrat Paul Davis are battling for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Rep. Lynn Jenkins.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — An Oregon man is charged after he allegedly rammed a Leavenworth County sheriff deputy’s car twice.

Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said Monday that 42-year-old Derek Kelley, of Rainier, Oregon, is charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and three other counts. Kelley is jailed in Leavenworth County.

Leavenworth County Undersheriff James Sherley said when the deputy was out of his vehicle after stopping a pickup truck between Leavenworth and Atchison, the pickup reversed and hit the patrol vehicle before taking off. Sherley says during the ensuing chase, the truck suddenly stopped and reversed into the patrol vehicle a second time.

The  deputy suffered a knee injury.

The truck was found abandoned. Kelley and a passenger in the truck fled into a nearby home before being arrested.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say an elderly woman has died after a house fire in Independence.

Police say the woman was pulled from the burning home Monday. Emergency responders began CPR before pronouncing her dead. Her name wasn’t immediately released.

A cause for the fire hasn’t been determined. Workers from the Squire gas company were on the scene investigating. They were joined on scene by the Kansas City Police and Independence Fire Departments and the Missouri State Fire Marshall.