Missouri lawmakers seek new mail-in ballot system for safety amid COVID-19 pandemic

Missouri lawmakers moved this week to create a new “no-excuse” mail-in ballot system to be used only while the state is combating the novel coronavirus.

But opponents of the bill said the plan would do little to make voting more convenient.

The system would require county clerks to print new envelopes and ballots, separate from the current absentee ballot process. While voters would not have to provide an excuse to request a mail-in ballot, they would still need a notary to validate their identity.

The measure, sponsored by state Rep. Dan Shaul, was intended to provide an alternative for those who feared exposure to COVID-19 if they voted in-person.

This measure “doesn’t mean that everybody in the state is going to get a ballot mailed to them,” Shaul, an Imperial Republican, said on the Missouri House floor. “But if you want to, you can request a mail-in ballot and after the clerk looks through the paperwork [and] makes sure your paperwork is correct, just as though they would on an absentee ballot, they will send you the ballot.”

But House Democrats said the bill did nothing to improve voter access.

“Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to now get an absentee ballot that I still have to get notarized,” state Rep. Deb Lavender, a St. Louis County Democrat, said during debate. “That’s not going to make it any more convenient for people to vote in this time of the pandemic.”

With the legislative session ending Friday evening, the measure was attached as amendments to two different Senate bills.

In one version of the bill added to SB 552, passed by House lawmakers Wednesday, the new system would only apply while the state was under an emergency declaration. It would not be used in the statewide August primary elections, nor the November general election, unless Gov. Mike Parson extends the state’s emergency declaration beyond its June 15 expiration date.

If passed, it would only cover local elections around the state, which will take place June 2.

A second version of the bill added to SB 631, passed by House lawmakers Thursday, provided that the new system would apply to all elections in 2020.

Both amended bills would reverse the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling on the state’s voter ID law. They allow those without state-approved photo ID to cast provisional ballots, to be counted if the voters returned to the polling place the same day with a Missouri driver’s or non-driver’s license. The ballot would also be counted if the voters’ signature matches the signature in the registration database.

They also include provisions giving the Secretary of State subpoena power and repealing the need for the attorney general to live in Jefferson City.

Currently, voters can request an absentee ballot if they have a valid excuse under Missouri law. Those who illegally cast an absentee ballot risk a felony conviction that carries up to a 5-year sentence and $10,000 fine.

Only one excuse, “incapacity or confinement due to illness or physical disability,” does not require the ballot to be notarized.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, the state’s chief elections official, has said that it’s up to local election officials to determine whether fear of the virus falls under this excuse. Personally, he said he does not believe the plain language of the law covers a healthy person who is afraid of contracting an illness.

“It’s not for me to tell people if you are scared of being infected that that the same thing as being confined due to an infection,” Ashcroft said Thursday.

Counties have had a patchwork approach toward whether voters will be able to use an existing excuse to vote absentee during the pandemic.

Healthy Kansas City voters cannot claim the excuse for upcoming elections, according to the Kansas City Election Board.

“At this time, if someone is sheltering in place but is not ill or taking care of someone who is ill, they would not be allowed to use that excuse at the present time,” Shawn Kieffer, director of elections, said Thursday.

The Jackson County Election Board have said that unless a voter is “truly confined because they have the virus or are confined because of a disability or illness” then COVID-19 isn’t an acceptable excuse to request an absentee ballot.

In April, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition sued Ashcroft to accept sheltering in place as a valid excuse to vote absentee.

County clerks support creating a seventh excuse for absentee voting, without a notary, because of a state emergency, according to Rick Watson, the Henry County Clerk and president of the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities.

“We just need to make it easier for people to cast their ballot during a pandemic,” Watson said. “We think that if there’s a state emergency, they can select that seventh option and be able to cast their ballot and mail it back without having to go hunt down a notary, which could be pretty difficult to do.”

Ashcroft supported the previous version of the House measure, which was a productive of compromise between him and county clerks, he said in an interview Thursday. It would have created a seventh excuse for absentee voting for elections that occur during a coronavirus-related state of emergency and in 2020.

“For the ‘check,’ we would put in, ‘Mail in COVID-19 ballot,” Ashcroft said. “That way we knew how to deal with it — the same procedures as absentees ballots.”

Noting a St. Louis statehouse race that was overturned four years ago due to absentee ballot irregularities, Ashcroft said he would have wanted the absentee ballot to be notarized.

“That’s really the only check we have that the person is who they said they were,” Ashcroft said.

Need for notaries

Keeping notaries in place was part of the compromise needed to enlist the support of lawmakers leery of voter fraud.

“We came together here to ensure that we have fair, trustworthy and transparent elections,” Shaul said.

Watson said no-excuse mail-in voting has been a preference of county clerks since long before the pandemic. But most believe notaries should still be required.

“When you go to the polls, you have to provide some type of an ID, you have to prove that you are who you say you are,” Watson said. “And the only way to be able to do that through an absentee process through the mail is to prove who you say you are to a notary.”

In April, Parson signed an executive order that would allow notaries conduct business over video chat and approve documents electronically. Although there are tens of thousands of notaries in Missouri, only 509 have registered with the Missouri Secretary of State to perform their duties electronically, as of Thursday.

The bills now moves to the Missouri Senate where senators can either accept the changes and send either bill to the governor for approval, or reject the changes and require another round of votes.

Parson has previously said that he would not support legislation to expand voting options during a pandemic, asserting that “our system is fine.”

However, Parson during his Thursday press briefing, the state needed to look at the “realities” of what voting may look like “come August or November.”

“Look, we know that the virus is going to be around but we don’t what the virus is going to be in July, much less November,” “We are not going to overhaul our voting system because of coronavirus. I’m not for that.”

*This story was updated to include comments from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.

This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 7:15 PM.