'Curbside Notary' service to help KC-area voters complete mail-in ballots

Curbside KC founder Danielle Lehman talks about the “Curbside Notary” service coming in September to help voters notarize mail-in ballots. She was speaking to KSHB-41 outside Cafe Corazon in Midtown Kansas City, which will host a notary event.

Check for notary opportunities at: www.curbsidenotary.org/

For starters, Danielle Lehman worries that too many people don’t even realize that in many cases, Missouri voters who wants to mail in their ballots need to get them notarized.

The founder of the Curbside KC restaurant program is all about making things easy — and now she wants to help voters navigate the pandemic-clouded November election. So now comes Curbside Notary.

Get complete voter information at Vote411.org

So far 18 restaurants in the Curbside KC network have scheduled some two dozen events this fall, partnering with volunteer notaries who will put their official stamps on voters ballots.

"It’s kind of complicated when to figure out where to find a notary," Lehman told KSHB-41. "It's maybe not even safer if you have to go meet that notary at their house or their office."

Notaries will dispense their service the same way restaurateurs distributed curbside sandwiches and coffee — customers wait in a safe-spaced distance, ready with their ballot.

"When it's their turn,” Lehman said, “they can come up to a table outside of a coffee shop, get their ballot notarized quickly and they can be on their way,"

The simple process is a small balm for a conflicted election season, with politicized national battles over the U.S. Mail service, trouble with funding, and warnings that mail can be delayed.

Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, in a report by KCUR, recognized that concern is weighing heavily over many hopeful voters.

He even took a call at his home from one of his constituents — fearful of long lines on Election Day — who asked the Congressman to bring her an absentee ballot. He can’t. That would be illegal, he said, but “it demonstrated the desperation people are feeling.”

While Cleaver said he is working on ways to get word out to voters and making plans to meet with Postal Service experts, the best advice, he said, is to get mail-in ballots as soon as they are available this fall and mail them back as quickly as possible.

The Curbside Notary website is setting up to answer voter questions and link to sites that help voters. One site, promoted by LINC, is the League of Women Voters site, Vote411.org.

"Because we're anticipating there could be mail delays,” Lehman said, “I'm actually recommending that people get their ballot in as soon as possible, but no later than maybe October 15 or 16th. That would give the postal service three weeks to get the ballot back to the election board."