Jay Ashcroft’s aim to ban ballot curing in Missouri is really just voter suppression
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has located what he hopes will be yet another way to stop some voters from casting ballots.
His office has called for a ban on “curing” ballots — allowing voters the chance to correct ballot errors to ensure that every vote counts. The secretary of state’s office should be championing those efforts, instead of trying to end them.
But of course, Ashcroft instead wants the General Assembly to stop local election workers from helping voters. For instance, rather than let an election worker remind a voter that he forgot to sign his ballot, Ashcroft would have the vote tossed out.
Missouri is one of few states that makes a legal distinction between an absentee ballot and a mail-in ballot. In most states, the terms are used interchangeably.
In Missouri, absentee ballots can be returned by mail or in person. Mail ballots must be returned by mail.
This latest poke at what really is a secure and resilient election process joins a long list of Republican-backed efforts to make it harder for voters to cast ballots. While attempts to limit voter access are not new, this is the result of a GOP fantasy of commonplace voter fraud and conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
In March, the Missouri House passed a bill that would require voters to show photo ID to vote absentee, three weeks before an election, without an excuse.
The Missouri Supreme Court last year struck down much of the state’s photo ID legislation, but Republicans, including Ashcroft, haven’t given up on pushing controversial photo ID requirements into law.
Voter ID laws, like Ashcroft’s proposal to stop ballot curing, would deprive many voters of access. Disproportionately, those voters are the less educated, low-income, racial minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities.
Voter suppression is not just a Missouri thing; 18 states have already enacted 30 laws this year that will make it harder for Americans to vote.
But Missouri, with Ashcroft leading the way in the wrong direction, is part of a whole wave of voting restrictions that New York’s Brennan Center for Justice calls the most aggressive it has seen in more than a decade of tracking state voting laws.
Voting rights activists should see Ashcroft’s proposal as inspiration to make sure the one person, one vote process is clean, fair and accessible. Anything less is unacceptable.