Missouri
Ballot Security
What Politicians Say
Voters in the state will soon need photo ID to vote, but they’ll also have two weeks before the election to cast ballots.
Republican Governor Mike Parsons signed a wide-ranging elections overhaul that added a long-sought photo ID requirement but also allowed in-person early voting for the first time.
Democrats in the legislature agreed to end a filibuster and let the bill come to a vote after the early voting provision was added.
Voters without photo ID on Election Day will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that would only be counted if they returned with the correct ID or their signature matched the one on file.
Nationally, as many as 3 in 10 provisional ballots are not counted.
The law also ends the state’s non-binding presidential primary, which critics deride as a “beauty contest,” and have nominees chosen only by party caucuses and conventions.
It also requires local elections administrators to begin asking voters for their party affiliation.
Missouri voters are not currently registered by party and can request a ballot for either party during primaries. Some see this measure as a potential step toward closed primaries, in which only members of that party can vote.
The law also bars state officials from agreeing to any changes to elections law as part of a settlement to a lawsuit and allows legislative leaders to intervene in any court cases.
Ease of Voting
Missouri is one of 16 states that require voters to offer an excuse to cast a mail-in ballot.
The 2022 elections overhaul added working as a first responder, police officer or health care workers to the list of excuses.
Previously, voters who were sick or disabled and their caretakers were allowed to request a mail-in ballot. Now, they will also need to show that they cannot go to the polls on Election Day, and caretakers are limited to those who live with them.
The law also restricts mail-in voting drives, barring anyone from attempting to persuade a voter to request a mail-in ballot or pre-filling a mail-in ballot application for them; bans mail ballot drop boxes; and requires local elections administrators to send a team to witness voting at any address with 10 or more mail-in voting applications.
Ballot Security
The elections overhaul also empowered the secretary of state to withhold funding from local elections administrators if they fail to update voter rolls or make election security changes as requested or if they accept any donations to help run elections, such as the grants local and state elections officials requested and received from Meta Platforms Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg in 2020.
Read More: Zuckerberg’s Election Aid Spurs GOP Drive in 30 States to Ban It
The law expressly requires that voting and ballot counting machines not be connected to the internet, which was already the law in Missouri.
It also requires local elections administrators to replace any touch-screen voting machines that break or wear out with paper-based voting machines. Currently, Missouri only uses touch-screen machines for voters with disabilities.
Local elections administrators will be required to mark the date and time any mail-in ballot was received in their office. Under Missouri law, mail-in ballots must be received by the time polls close on Election Day.
How Politicians Responded to the 2020 Election
Attorney General Eric Schmitt supported a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to intervene in the election.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said that while Missouri elections were fair, other states were wrong to “willy-nilly” send mail ballots, and that while making it easy to vote states should also ensure “we don’t cheapen elections.”
In mid-November of 2020, he spoke at a large rally inside the Missouri Capitol attended by Trump supporters who doubted that Biden won.
US Senator Josh Hawley was the first Republican senator to say that he would object to the certification of electors, saying he hoped to highlight changes to state election laws as well as the “unprecedented interference of Big Tech monopolies.”
Hawley’s campaign has sold coffee mugs and other merchandise featuring a photo taken of him raising his fist in support of Jan. 6 protesters outside the Capitol.
Hawley co-sponsored the objection to Pennsylvania’s electors and voted against the certification of Biden electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
All six of Missouri’s Republican US representatives signed an amicus brief in support of the Texas lawsuit. Five also objected to Biden electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.